From the pen of an architects’ architect
Title:Architecture for Modern India
AUTHOR:Christopher Benninger
PP: 384
PRICE:4181
Publisher:India House Art Gallery, Pune
Architects play multiple roles in
the overall making of any good
and liveable city. They create
public facilities, private estates
and at time plan an entire city with
a number of future needs of the
people in mind. In other words,
the built environment in a city
tells us a lot about who all created
that. Of course, some architects
are extraordinary in their vision,
planning and execution while
others are not. Some build ordinary
houses, shabby government
buildings and private offices, while
others design cities and use their
creative genius and experience to
build gorgeous public spaces and
buildings which add to the urban
aesthetics in a big way.
The bulky book which I have
been reading for some time and
then thought of reviewing it for the
readers of Book Link is because of
this celebrated American architect’s
impressive vision for modern India
which he has shared through this
beautiful compendium, printed
in Italy last year. What is special
about Christopher Benninger is that
after his studies in the renowned
institutes in the United States (MIT
and Harvard), he listened to his
inner self and settled in India, first
in Ahmedabad and now in Pune.
So he is an architect who is an
American by birth and education
and an Indian by experience and
learning—a rare combination of
modernism and tradition. Public
buildings, corporate headquarters,
slum-upgradation project (Kolkata),
mass self help housing (Chennai),
experimental shelter strategies
in Hyderabad, SOS Village near
Delhi and government buildings
designed by him proudly stand
tall across India, from Delhi to
Ahmedabad and Pune to Kolkata.
Benninger and his team also built
the Supreme Court of Bhutan and
some other imposing structures in
Nairobi, Sri Lanka, and New York.
This book introduces to the readers
his ideas and creativity in depth.
Many years ago I had had visited
‘Videsh Bhawan’, the External
Affairs Ministry headquarters on
the Raj Path, facing the Central
Vista in New Delhi, and was pretty
impressed to see its beautiful
design. Frankly, then I had heard
a little about Benninger or much
of his stylish works elsewhere in
the country. This Delhi building,
built more than 15 years ago, was
heavily influenced by the creations
and thinking of Delhi’s famous
British architect Edwin Lutyens in
designing the Parliament building
which is the most precious and
prominent gift of Lutyens to
Indians.
Benninger’s unique and
chequered India journey begins
with the eminent Indian architect
Balkrishna Doshi who was
instrumental in inviting the
American architect to work
on the School of Planning at
Ahmedabad, now known as the
Centre for Environmental Planning
and Technology University
(CEPT), way back in 1971. Now
75, Benninger is still active and
there is a long queue of young
architecture students wanting to be
trained under him, not to talk of a
long list of private and government
clients. Some of those who know
Benninger, term the Gujarati doyen
of architecture as the ‘Guru’ of
American architect.
B e n n i n g e r ’ s
modernism, according
to Ramprasad Akkisetti,
curator at India House &
Art Gallery at Pune, has
to do a lot with social
architecture, urbanism, and the
human conditions. ‘He is interested
in creating the architectural building
blocks that transform society and
gift rationality to the institutions
that build civil societies.’
In his many urban plans he has
put ‘the last first’ and focussed on
inclusive human settlements. He
sees the plan of a city as harmony
between networks of critical
systems realised through rational
structure plans, assuring potable
water, mass transit, sanitation and
other basic amenities. He sees
planning itself as a continuous, ad
hoc and disjointed process of public
decision making for the common
good and rationally distributing
limited resources in a sustainable
manner. According to Akkisetti,
the septuagenarian architect rejects
comprehensive planning, zoning
and automobile oriented planning as
‘oppressive, polarising and creating
inefficiencies’ that drive local
communities into endless debt.
But don’t be mistaken about his
environmental concerns, or lack of
it. He believes in contraction
of consumption, and the
application of intelligent
design principles to
sustain homeostatic microclimates.
He has practiced in utilising,
rather than exploiting resources,
replenishing energy, re-elaborating
traditions authenticating cultures
rather than cloning customs,
respecting geo-climatic conditions
and supporting conviviality, writes
Rosa Maria Falvo from Milan,
among others from different
countries who wrote in the book
about their impressions of the
architect par excellence.
What does Benninger say about
himself? Well, while explaining
his experiences with India and
why this book, he explains that
the book is about the practice of
architecture in South Asia and
the kinds of artefacts his ‘studio’
produced over the past four
decades. So it is a document about
intentions, strategies and methods
of producing buildings. It also
illustrates how the products of
these processes appear in reality.
However, an architect
produces more than
just buildings; he or she
practices art, aiming to
create what poetically
reflects their context
in terms of social,
economic and cultural forces. This
book gives us sufficient insight
into urban India’s varied issues,
architect’s worries, approach and
thinking of a well-trained and
educated foreigner towards India
and its badly managed cities, as it
unfolds his superb creations one
after the other before us while
simultaneously telling us subtly a
lot about urbanisation, importance
of planning, environment and
aesthetics.
Abhilash Khandekar
National Political Editor of
Dainik Bhaskar.