AR 1603

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE - V

NAME : SIVABHADRA.S
BATCH : S6 A
ROLL NO : 33
M.C.A.P
 Achyut Purushottam Kanvinde (1916–28
December 2002) was one of the pioneers of
Modern Architecture in India with a
professional career spanning five decades.
Kanvinde worked in functionalist approaches
with elements of Brutalist architecture. His
body of work contributes to the Modern
heritage of post-independence India. He
received the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest
civilian award in the Republic of India, in 1974.

Achyut Purushottam
Kanvinde
Influences and education
He was born in Achra, in the Konkan region of Maharashtra IN 1916.
Kanvinde, influenced by his father, a portrait and landscape
painter, took up art and graduated in architecture from Sir J.J.
School of Arts, Mumbai in 1942. He was then sent by the Government
of India to study at Harvard where he worked under Walter
Gropius and was influenced by his thinking and teaching. The
European masters of the Bauhaus – Albert BayeR ,Moholy Nagy,
Marcel Breuer, and the Swiss-American architectural historian
Siegfried Giedion also had a great impact. Some of his famous
batchmates were Paul Rudolph, I. M. Pei and John Perkins.
 PHILOSOPHY
Kanvinde played with
space and forms. A famous
example is the ISKCON
Temple at New Delhi. He
gave great importance to
natural light. The form of
the building is such that
the problem of ventilation
as well as excessive heat
is beautifully solved. He
championed the cause of
vernacular architecture.
He believed that values
and historical influences
contributed towards good
architecture.
PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur.
"Over the years I have come to believe it is imperative that an architect
develop a sensitivity to human nature and a respect for human values. This,
after all, is at the very core of his work. In India the search for a new
architectural expression must continue – and this must go beyond the
satisfaction of matter of fact functional needs. I think the designer’s
sensibility here must become aware of the accumulated wisdom of
generations, but this should go together with the idea of progress
reflected in the evolution of technology. In my own case, I must acknowledge
my tremendous debt to Gropius – it was he who really exposed me to the
power of technology on the one hand and the psychological dimensions of
spatial organiSation on the other. Actually my present concerns and
realiZations are all reflections of my earlier preoccupations: as a student
at the J. J. School in Bombay my thesis was on “Architectural Composition and
its Application to Indian Architecture”
M
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IIT KANPUR ISKCON TEMPLE

B
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G NEHRU SCIENCE
CENTRE
DOODH SAGAR DAIRY

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ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES FLAT ROOFS CUBICALS

• HIS BUILDING WERE SIMPLE AND HE

USEDTO TELL THE STUDENTS
‘ARCHITECTURE IS NOT A MUSEUM OF
MATERIAL’.
• THE VARIOUS PRINCIPLES ARE :
➢ ASSYMETRY
➢ BLOCKY
➢ CUBIC SPACES
➢ SMOOTH, FLAT, PLAIN, UNDECORATED
SURFACES.
➢ FLAT ROOFS, ADOPTION OF STEEL
FRAMED OR REINFORCED CONCRETE
POST AND SLAB.

➢ FUNCTIONALISM
➢ LOGIC OF
LIGHTNESS
➢ MODERN USE OF COLUMNS
ARCHITECTURE AND
BRUTALISM.
➢ REGIONALISM OPEN SPACE
➢ RATIONALIST
➢ SENSE OF SPACE.
 ➢ THIS CENTRAL SPACE ALSO SERVE
AS AN EXTENSION OF THE TEACHING
AREA, THE SHAPE OF THE
RESIDENTIAL UNIT ON THE FIRST
FLOOR IS DICTATED BY THE LINEAR
FORM GENERATED ON THE LOWER
DARPANA ACADEMY LEVEL, PARTIALLY SPANNING OVER
THE EXTENDED TERRACE BELOW.
IIT KANPUR
 ➢ Founded in 1960, the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur was one of the five
state-sponsored technical universities
established under the leadership of Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru whose vision for
a modern India was based on techno-
scientific and industrial development.
➢ the IITK became a milestone project of
his career where he shifted from cubic
forms, smooth surfaces and machine
aesthetic of the ‘International Style’
towards a more regional approach.
➢ The site IS located on the outskirts of the
industrial city of Kanpur. Envisioned as a self-
contained residential campus capable of growth,
it had to be planned as an integrated urban
environment which would fulfil the needs of living
and studying.

➢ In his master plan, HE superimposed a layer of

major and minor roads along cardinal directions
which subdivided the site into interlocking
quadrangular segments.

➢ A separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic

which was commonly accepted as A fundamental
principle of urban design internationally
underpinned the scheme with each quadrangle
planned as a pedestrian precinct surrounded by
a vehicular road.
➢ A 50 acre precinct for academic buildings was
planned centrally surrounded by residential and
recreational zones.

➢ Critical to the size and relation between precincts

was the 20 minute walking radius that ensured a
pedestrian scale – an idea based on the concept of
a “ neighbourhood unit”. Such a designated land use
assured long-range reservation for need-based
growth while retaining relationships to other parts
of the campus – a principle which has continued to
determine the character of campus today even
after 50 years.

➢ A dominant feature of the scheme was a series of

double level-walkways that threaded through all
the buildings. These linear pedestrian and
bicyclefriendly linkages that functioned in climatic
extremes of Kanpur (lower level shaded for summer
and top level open for winter) were envisioned as
vital street like settings where social interactions
would occur in lush landscaped gardens.
Additionally, service tunnels were planned
underneath walkways.

➢ Kanvinde called the walkways “arteries and veins”

thus reflecting their critical role in the effective
functioning and vitality of campus life.
THANK
YOU..