Corbusier would not have ditched nature: Doshi

CHANDIGARH: "Had he been alive to see the population grow and the city needing an expansion, he would have invented new typologies of gardens as he wanted to connect humans to nature and he would not have compromised with the green cover in order to accommodate more population," said professor Balkrishna Doshi while talking about Le Corbusier and his ideology on architecture on Monday.
Dr Balkrishna Doshi, a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects, worked for four years with Le Corbusier as senior designer (1951-54) in Paris and four more years in India to supervise his projects in Ahmedabad. He had come to meet him in Chandigarh many a time and was also on special duty for one month on Chandigarh project.
He has also written books on Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, an acrobat and yogi of architecture, in 1994, "Le Corbusier - A Personal Reading" in 2008 and "Le Corbusier - The Indian Incarnation" in 2008.
During an interview with TOI, Doshi recalled his time spent with Le Corbusier in Paris as well as in India. "Whenever I came to Chandigarh to meet him, he would come out in seconds and then we would go for long walks discussing buildings, life and our experiences," he said. He shared how Le Corbusier was a very particular man and reached everywhere on time. "He was very punctual. He did not have a secretary as he said he hated getting late or reaching early," he said.
Doshi said India changed Le Corbusier. "He was reincarnated during his visit to India and became a sage." "India was a new phase of life for him. Before starting Chandigarh and during the making he studied vastu shastra, ethology, customs, sociology, religions, plants and animals, life, villages, rituals and festivals and their meanings and he noted it all in his diary," he added.
He said Le Corbusier gave four hours to himself every day and spent that time in writing, reading analysing nature and spent this time with himself.
Doshi said Le Corbusier was the best thing India got. His buildings, he said, were journals of change. "He was the best. Every building of his tells a story of change between yesterday and today. He is the only architect in the world in centuries whose maximum buildings have got heritage status."
Talking about what the UT administration can do to keep the character of the city alive while extending the city to incorporate the growing population, he said the ideology of Le Corbusier, that human should connect to nature, should be turned into a rule. Once it will be a policy, every architect who will work on city will design it, giving green cover its due which will keep the character of the city alive.
Sharing an example on how city can be extended keeping his ideology in mind, he said that we should think of vertical gardens and high-rise gardens. "These will keep the building cool and save energy," he said.