Located in the area of Vijayanagar, in the Indian city of Toranagallu, the Hampi Art Labs complex evokes the forms of the neaby Tungabhadra River and the surrounding hills. Using stone, clay, brick, and cement, the project’s spaces flow between curvi
Immersed in a humid tropical climate, with strong monsoon rains, this house in the city of Kadirur, in India’s State of Kerala, combines indoor and outdoor spaces, interweaving them with courtyards, landscape pockets, and biophilic features that conn
The Mumbai-based firm founded in 1992 by Sanjay and Nina Puri has built this spiral-shaped community center, crowned with a green roof, that gives views of the surrounding desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Located in Moolwas, it was designed t
Located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a warm dry region, this project involved renovating and enlarging a rural school built for the children of the workers of the Penna cement factory. Forming a multipurpose shaded area accessible
On land where fruit-bearing plants are grown, arches of different sizes and walls of brick peep through dense vegetation, looking like ruins of an abandoned construction. Outside Kaggalipura, a village some 40 kilometers south of Bangalore, the capit
A series of cubic volumes and stairs of concrete gives rise to this house near the beach of Dumas, in the city of Surat, India. On a stone base, the building fuses traditional architectural elements with contemporary ones. Around a central staircase
Within the GYAAN Center, designed by the New York architect Diana Kellogg, stands this school built with local sandstone that welcomes more than 400 girls from families living below the poverty line, in a region where female literacy barely reaches 3
There is no doubt that we live surrounded by what Debord acidly called the marchandise vedette, articles that compete to be displayed in the most irresistible way possible, appealing to our senses and our wallets. In architecture, this dictate of pub
Formed in 1956 in Patiala, a city in the Indian state of Punjab, Thapar University commissioned the Dublin practice of Valerie Mulvin and Niall McCullough to unify its disparate campus by devising a masterplan and raising a series of buildings for ho
In the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, the New Delhi-based firm Studio Lotus has built new offices for the Department of Agriculture. As a government building it was conceived at the outset strictly for official use, but the architects propose
Designed with the highest sustainability standards, the new administrative capital of Andhra Pradesh is organized by an urban grid with a green spine running through its length. The project includes the Legislature Assembly and the High Court complex
Born as a critique of temporary events that leave abandoned constructions, the pavilion is formed by a wood structure with which the mycelium is merged and from which it eats, and it will grow until it dies once its purpose is fulfilled...
The Mumbai firm of the architect Samira Rathod designed this terracotta school building surrounded by tobacco fields in Bhadran, a village in the state of Gujarat, in far western India. It is characterized by asymmetrical arches for which children’s
The campus of Ganeshi Lal Agrawal University in Mathura – a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 150 kilometers south of New Delhi – includes this student hostel designed by the Mumbai-based practice of Sanjay Puri. Offering 800 rooms, the five
In Alibag, a coastal town in the Indian state of Maharashtra, stands this house fragmeted into three modules, a work of the Mumbai firm RMA Architects of Rahul Mehrotra. Organized around an exterior courtyard, these modules work autonomously but are
sP+a, the Mumbai practice headed by Sameep Padora, has enlarged a small children’s library for Sharda School in Kopargaon, a town in the largely rural Indian state of Maharashtra. Its complex undulating roof is inspired in the brick tile vault techni
Drawing inspiration from the idea of a grove of trees, the paivlion is built with slender wooden footings holding up an inclined roof, which creates a microclimate of shade.
With views of the city and the sea, the 57-story apartment block symbolizes the spirit of Indian cities and their striking colors through the repetition of lacquered glass elements on the facade, configuring a large mashrabiya... [+]
Located on the outskirts of the Indian city of Auroville, in an area much affected by environmental and social problems– from water scarcity to inadequate housing – this house designed by Anupama Kundoo is conceived as a laboratory for sustainable te
The new wing, which adds 11,600 square meters of galleries, is envisioned as a series of Boolean subtractions, with white concrete voids cut out of the simple red Agra stone volume. This operation generates dramatic effects of light and shade... [+]
Linked by a fluid landscape with a sculpture garden and a pool, the new annex, wrapped in building blocks, contrasts physically and programmatically with the colonial building, having the potential to set up a dialogue between the traditional and mod
Considered to be one of the most important public spaces in Mumbai, the Museum Plaza is redesigned and becomes the functional and social heart of the museum, whose distinctive sawtooth expression turns it into a landmark building.
Flanked by a publicly accessible garden, stepped to allow for different degrees of privacy and sculpture display, the new wing lifts itself up from the site to create a direct visual connection between the existing museum and the city and gardens.
Does being modern mean adopting a style, taking on a certain attitude, continuing to exhaust the paths of the avant-gardes, ultimately finding new ways to do old things? Balkrishna Doshi (1927-2023), one of the fathers of architecture in India, is un
Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander - carrying a rover in its belly - touched down on the lunar soil after a 20-minute, nail-biting finale watched by millions of people across the world. Hours later, the Pragyaan rover - Pragyaan is the Sanskrit word for w
After the worst part of the pandemic, the Ukraine war shook the world tracing an ominous geopolitical scenario, which only science advances seem to alleviate.
This country-continent is already the world’s most populated. While humanity hit the 8 billion mark, India surpassed China, showing a demographic strength that contrasts with the decline of the Middle Kingdom, which for the first time in 60 years has
“Fixity is always momentary.” The line from Octavio Paz’s The Monkey Grammarian, a poetic pilgrimage to Galta, in the heart of Rajasthan, could serve as an introduction to this book by the architect and Harvard GSD professor Rahul Mehrotra, a compila
Though Gira means power of speech in Gujarati, Giraben let her work do the speaking – as institution builder, collector, and caretaker of objects, buildings, histories, legacies, and human values for future generations. The passing of Gira Sarabhai,
It’s hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to. Meanwhile, Modi and his allies are telling us not to complain. During a particularly polarising election campaign in the state
After an outcry from preservationists and architects, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad said that it would reconvene to consider the dorms’ future. Plans to raze 14 of 18 dormitories designed by the architect Louis Kahn for the Indian I
The board of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad has decided to demolish the dormitories built by legendary American architect Louis Kahn on its campus triggering a controversy. The restoration of the dorms was part of an ongoing project by
Echoing Aristotle, Leon Battista Alberti proclaimed that in architecture, virtue lies in the middle ground: in moderation, balance, the right proportions. The thesis holds for many architects, but especially for Rahul Mehrotra, whose work has managed
In the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, the New Delhi-based firm Studio Lotus has built new offices for the Department of Agriculture. As a government building it was conceived at the outset strictly for official use, but the architects propose
India will today (Oct. 31) unveil the world’s tallest statue, that of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a leading light of the country’s long freedom struggle against the British. Prime minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the towering structure, loca
Balkrishna Doschi, a master of modernity and teacher of several generations of Indian architects, is the latest receipient of the Pritzker Prize.
The chairman of Hyatt Foundation, Tom Pritzker, announced the selection of Balkrishna Doshi as Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate of 2018, the accolade’s fortieth anniversary. Born in Pune in 1927, Doshi is one of the leading figures of modern arch
Always mindful of social issues, Charles Correa managed to graft the cultural and architectural traditions of his home country, India, into the modern language.
India’s master of modern architecture, Charles Correa, passed away on 16 June. He was 84 years old. Son of an affluent couple from Goa (which explains his Portuguese surname), Correa had an early calling for architecture (which he associated with his
If Chandi, supreme goddess of the Hindu pantheon and the eponymous divinity of the city of Chandigarh, ever played a celestial role in the selection of the site of the eastern Punjab’s new capital, it was perhaps enacted in the way she repelled, with
Kaleidoscopic and plural, the new architecture of India seeks to strike a balance between the strong influence of global tendencies and the desire to maintain the country’s rich traditions.
India is not a country, but a continent. It is very hard to fully grasp its diversity, so here we attempt to explore its architecture through a series of examples that go from the Himalayas to its southern extreme. As Rahul Mehrotra explains, in cont
Rahul Mehrotra
Berlín 2021
ArchiTangle - 352 Pages
Maria Bonaiti Villa Sarabhai, Ahmedabab, 1951-1956
Rahul Mehrotra RMA Architects
Peter Scriver Amit Srivastava Modern Architectures in history
Werner Feiersinger Andrea Vass
Vienna 2015
Scheidegger & Spiess - 414 Pages
Rahul Mehrotra
Ostfildern 2011
Hatje Cantz - 312 Pages