BUILDING FOR A BETTER WORLD-CHARLES CORREA

Text: Varun Kannan      Photos: Various Sources

WE LOOK BACK AT ALL THAT CHARLES CORREA LEFT US; ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE BUILDINGS, SENSIBLE URBAN PLANNING AND AN ENDURING PHILOSOPHY OF LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE.

World leaders have been dabbling with the concept of sustainability for quite a while now, more so after the Rio summit in 1992. Definitions and elaborations of the word sustainability are aplenty, with a few even pitted against each other. “Development that meets the need of the present without compromising the needs of the future generation to meet their own needs” was how the Brundtland Report for the world commission on Environment and Development chose to eulogize it. Lofty and inspirational as it sounds, the definition in many ways discounts the fact that the world of economics largely equates the word need to its more dangerous sibling, growth. It has been enunciated many times over that quantitative growth is hardly ever sustainable by economists like Hermann Daly; thus making the idea of sustainability a beautiful yet unachievable goal that just helps to tone down the ruthlessness of corporate documents and visions of first world nations. But then there are individuals who sidestep the theoretical debate on sustainability and take it upon themselves to give it a meaning of their own; Charles Correa, the architect was one such man. Though time has taken away this Indian stalwart, the legacy of the much-loved architect of many an iconic building and a planner lauded for his efforts at sustainable urban planning and low-cost living lives on.

Correa’s buildings are known to seamlessly imbibe the ethos and culture of a place not conflicting with the functionality of it. He was probably foremost among the modern Indian architects, post- independence, to have shed the colonial influences to make buildings that were truly Indian in nature; the Gandhi Ashram at Ahmedabad being the first of his creations that had the world standing up and taking notice. It has to be mentioned here that Charles shared ideas of community service and social service with Gandhi and was probably the best man to have built the place. What followed the Gandhi Ashram was an illustrious career, creating architectural marvels around the world, not once compromising on his philosophy. Highly regarded for his idea of self-build housing, the idea of how people relate to the built environment in towns and cities. A government competition project for low-rise, high-density housing in Lima, Peru, both reflected these concerns and took into account the need for earthquake precautions. In the following years, he was also occupied with low-cost settlements in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Jodhpur.

A feature throughout Correa’s career was his willingness to partner with traditional painters and craftsmen to achieve a unified environment. That did not stop him from showcasing a more contemporary world view as he created worldly structures like the headquarters for the British Council in New Delhi or when he invited Howard Hodgkin to provide a mural design that was executed in black and white marble by Delhi craftsmen.

But the activist-environmentalist in Correa was never satisfied with the developments around him. Talking about his home, the city of Mumbai, he once lamented that it “Gets worse and worse as a physical environment … and better and better as a city. That is to say, every day it offers more in the way of skills, activities, opportunity – on every level, from squatter to college student to the entrepreneur to the artist … destroying Mumbai as an environment, while it intensifies its quality as a city … Cities, since the beginning of time, have embodied the dreams and aspirations of a society.”
It was along these lines that Correa conceived the idea of Navi Mumbai, seeing it as the perfect plan to decongest the city of Mumbai by creating a wonderfully planned just beside it. He was the chief architect of CIDCO, the body that was created to build it; but stepped down five years later recognizing the futility of an exercise that lacked political will. But a visit to the village of Belapur could give you a sense of what his dream was for Navi Mumbai. The failure of the project was not the failure of the planners or the builders, but a testimony to the inertia of the political and bureaucratic legion that lacked the will to make things work.
Among his major efforts at propagating the idea of sustainability was the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay that was set up in 1984, dedicated to the protection of the built environment and improvement of urban communities. During the final four decades of his life, Correa did pioneering work in urban issues and low-cost shelter in many parts of the third world.

Correa was invited to work on many a prestigious project worldwide, including government buildings and museums like Ismaili Centre at Toronto, the Institute of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and the Champalimaud Foundation Centre at Lisbon described by the main himself as a “project to the unknown”. As a recognition to his work, he has also been adorned with awards, national and international, including the Padma Vibhushan.
As one travels through the city of Mumbai, one is reminded of the brilliance of the man’s work: the rooms that open up to sky at the Kanchenjunga Apartments and many of his other buildings that exhibit the masterly use of natural lighting. As the world gets globalised into one expansive urban conglomerate, Correa’s philosophy and brand of sustainable development becomes more and more relevant.