Charles Correa


Charles Mark Correa was an Indian architect and urban planner. Credited for the creation of modern architecture in post-Independent India, he was celebrated for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban poor and for his use of traditional methods and materials.

Biography

Charles Correa, a Roman Catholic of Goan descent, was born on 1 September 1930 in Secunderabad. He began his higher studies at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He went on to study at the University of Michigan where Buckminster Fuller was a teacher, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he obtained his master's degree.
In 1958, Charles Correa established his own professional practice in Mumbai. His first significant project was the Mahatma Gandhi Sangrahalaya at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Bhopal. In 1961-1966, he designed his first high-rise building, the Sonmarg apartments in Mumbai. On the National Crafts Museum in New Delhi, he introduced "the rooms open to the sky", his systematic use of courtyards. In the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, he makes a structural hommage to Jai Singh II. Later, he invited the British artist Howard Hodgkin for the outside design of the British Council in Delhi.
From 1970–75, Charles Correa was Chief Architect for New Bombay, where he was strongly involved in extensive urban planning of the new city. In 1984, Charles Correa founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay, dedicated to the protection of the built environment and improvement of urban communities. During the final four decades of his life, Correa has done pioneering work in urban issues and low-cost shelter in the Third World. In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization.
From 2005 until his 2008 resignation Correa was the Chairman of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission.
Later, Charles Correa designed the new Ismaili Centre in Toronto, Canada, which shared the site with the Aga Khan Museum designed by Fumihiko Maki, and the Champalimaud Foundation Centre in Lisbon, inaugurated by the Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva on 5 October 2010.
He died on 16 June 2015 in Mumbai following a brief illness.

Work

Style

Charles Correa designed almost 100 buildings in India, from low-income housing to luxury condos. He rejected the glass-and-steel approach of some post-modernist buildings, and focused on designs deeply rooted in local cultures, allthewhile providing modern structural solutions under his creative designs. His style was also focused on reintroducing outdoor spaces and terraces.
In 2013, the Royal Institute of British Architects held a retrospective exhibition, "Charles Correa – India's Greatest Architect", about the influences of his work on modern urban Indian architecture.

Projects

PhotoDateNameLocationNotes
1958–1963Mahatma Gandhi Sangrahalaya
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial		Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad
1961-1962Tube HouseAhmedabaddemolished
1961-1966Sonmarg apartmentsMumbai
1967Madhya Pradesh Legislative AssemblyBhopal
1970Kala Academy
1975–1990National Crafts MuseumNew Delhi
R&D facility of Mahindra & Mahindra LtdMahindra Research Valley, Chennai
1980-1997Vidhan Bhavan
1982Bharat BhavanBhopal
1986–1992Jawahar Kala Kendra
Jawahar Arts Centre
Jaipur
1986Jeevan Bharati
Life Insurance Corporation of India		On the 2018 World Monuments Watch list of "50 Cultural Sites at Risk from Human and Natural Threats"
1987–1992British CouncilDelhi
2000St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, ParumalaParumala, Thiruvalla
2000–2005McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchMIT, Boston, US
2004City centerSalt Lake City, Kolkata
2007–2010Champalimaud Centre for The UnknownLisbon, Portugal
Ismaili CentreToronto, Canada

Awards

Charles Correa married Monika, an artist, in 1961. Together they lived in one of the flats of the Sonmarg apartments in Mumbai. They had two children.