1916-2002

Padma Shri Achyut Kanvinde

occupied unique position in the
history of contemporary Indian
architecture.
He was an Indian architect ,
teacher, writer and a committed
modernist as he always desired
to take Indian architecture to be
global and to the height of
international style.
 Kanvinde was born in 1916 in a small village
on the Konkan coast.
 Raised in a joint family in the village.
 Kanvinde had the calling of a painter and did
enroll in an art school but the family decided
that architecture would be a better profession
for him.
 He entered the Architecture Department at Sir
J.J. School of Art in 1935 then headed by
Claude Batley, who was also the premier
architect of the country.
 He passed out in 1941.
 1943, he joined the newly formed Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research as architect.
 Achyut Kanvinde attended Harvard
Graduate school of Design in 1945.
 In ‘47 appointed as the Chief Architect of
CSIR.
 The firm Kanvinde and Rai(Achyut Kanvinde
and Shaukat Rai)eshtablished in New Delhi in
1955.
 Claude Batley 1879 -1956
 Kanvinde remembers him as "a very important
man in shaping the outlook of many
architects of my generation, also of the earlier
generation“
 In his practice he avoided the loud,
revolutionary éclat of the machine-age
imagery popular in the west in favor of an
archeologically literate fusion of Western
classical order with Indian building traditions
and coupled with sound climatological
principles. His works and his thinking were
obvious models for his students.
 Harvard Graduate school of Design- 1945
 Then had a reputation of being the new
fountainhead of functional and social promise
of Modern Architecture under its émigré
director Walter Gropius.
 It is believed that Gropius’s insistence for using
space as a tool for expressing universal
human values was what left most lasting
influence on his mind.
 physical research Ahmedabad Textiles council of scientific Harivallabdas House,
laboratory Industries Research and industrial Ahemdabad
ahmedabad Association research new delhi

Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra iit kanpur campus Doodhsagar Dairy Institute of Rural
Bangalore (1965) ,Mehsana (National Dairy Management,
Development Board) Anand
(1973)

Nehru Science Center, National Science Center, National Insurance

ISKCON Temple, East of
Mumbai (1985) New Delhi (1991) Academy, Pune (1992)
Kailash, Delhi
 By the end of 1960s Kanvinde’s
expressive architecture was variously
interpreted as "an architectural
expression that reflected the culture and
aspirations" and "clearly reflected the rise
of the Brutalist polemic of architecture".
 Expressed Concrete structure in
combination with brick became the
dynamic determinant of form and order.

 Here the paradox is that what (Brutalism)

in the West was popular for the
dynamism and the aesthetic of vigour, in
neo-Gandhian India of 1970s is regarded
a realistic and expressive product of
India.
 In retrospect, that style shows a
remarkable similarity with the brute
morphology of vernacular architecture in
parts of India.
 Awarded Padma Shree in 1976.

 President IIA (1974-75)

 Co-Authored book “Campus Design in India”.

 IIA’s Babu Rao Mhatre Gold Medal for life time achievement in 1985

 Great Masters Award from JK Industries Ltd. in 1993.

 Was also a part of the jury on the competition for the Indira Gandhi
National Center for Arts, along with B.V. Doshi.
 The Doodhsagar dairy is monstrous,
raw, and probably one of the first
outbursts of what can be called
Kanvinde’s brutalism.
 The form is very rough, and blocky.
 He has always been described to
be modest and approachable,
and always has preferred to keep a
low profile.
 This building presents a stark
contrast to his character.
 In Kanpur, the local availability of high
quality brick and the prevalent labour
and construction practices made
Kanvinde go for reinforced concrete for
structural frames and brick as infills .

 Guided though he was by ‘pragmatics’

of construction, Kanvinde made an
‘aesthetic’ use of the two materials,
while on the other hand Kahn, guided by
‘expressive’ motives had ultimately used
the two materials to show the
‘rationality’ and ‘logic’ of organisation
and order, an ‘intellectual’ and
‘pragmatic’ result.

 Another facet of Indian Architecture,

which is ironical in the way it transforms
building concepts, is the labour intensive
building industry.
OUR OPINION

Based on observations of his work, we can say that despite most of them being distinctive, they are all very similar. They
appear to be built with a large amount of thought having been given to making them functionally efficient and
practically feasible. This coupled with his humble character might be the reason for his work to not have received the
same attention. His works are generally raw and unemotional. For the time they were built, his buildings might have
been highly inspirational, and emotional. Another factor which is likely to have been responsible for the nature of his
work is the amount of commissions that he received. The large amount of work on his hands could have been the
reason for the works to have shaped up in a similar way.

His buildings were always conceived with first priority given to its functions, and the social values when designing spaces.
They rejected symmetry. Even the temple he designed, at the fag end of his career, for ISKON, has three shikharas- all of
which face different angles- very unlike any other temple, which would have its shikhars linearly arranged- emphasizing
a direction.

The visible difference in his later works, as compared to earlier ones, is that the structural system is easily readable on the
face of the building, and the buildings clearly respond to climate.

CONCLUSION

Kanvinde’s career spanned a period of about 50 years. It was a prolific career in that the scale and number of projects
he worked on from the beginning are incomparable.

There are infinite number of concerns, influences and traditions that have shaped Kanvinde’s works. A much deep-
probing understanding of his life and his work responsive to his larger interests and concerns seems important to clarify
the important phase of the political and social process in the creation in the new country which he shaped and guided.
Humility and reticence are acclaimed hallmarks of his persona, which is probably one of the reasons his works have not
been as widely known as they could have been.