ART 303 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE & CULTURE IV

SINI | FEBA | RITU

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Module 5

● Post-colonial, Nehruvian nation building initiatives;

● Planning Commission and public sector led industrialisation;
● Building of new industrial towns (e.g. Bhilai, Durgapur,Rourkela etc.),
● New capital cities (e.g. Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh and Gandhinagar);
● Works of Corbusier and Louis Kahn in India and their influences on Indian architects;
Millowners Building, IIM Ahmedabad.
● Works of public nature- Legislative assembly, High Court and Secretariat, Chandigarh.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Phases of Modernism in India
SECOND
EARLY MODERN FIRST GENERATION POST-NEHRU
GENERATION OF POST-MODERNIST
ARCHITECTURE IN OF MODERNIST MODERNIST
MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE
INDIA ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE

1920 -1950 1945 -1970 1950 -1980 1965-1990 1975 - 1995

Indo-Saracenic, Bauhaus Rationalism, Utilitarian Modernism Post-modernism

Gothic Revival ,Art Rationalism Empiricism ,Neo-modernism
Deco
J A Stein, O. H. Le Corbusier, Louis Achyuth Kanvinde, Charles Correa, B V
Edwin Lutyens Königsberger Kahn Anant Raje Doshi, Laurie Baker

Plan of Bhilai, Chandigarh, IIT Kanpur,

India Gate,
Durgapur, Rourkela, Gandhinagar, Mill Matirmandir,
Eros Cinema, Kala Kendra, Jaipur,
Bhubaneshwar, Owner’s Association, Pondicherry,
Mumbai Lotus Temple, Delhi IIM Bangalore, CDS
Supreme Court, Delhi Ahmendabad,
IIM Ahmedabad
Source: Lang, Jon. A Concise History of Modern Architecture in India
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT
Post-colonial Architecture in India

● The first two decades (1945 to 1970 CE) focussed on

a) Building new industrial towns
eg: Bhilai, Rourkela
b) Building new institutions Supreme Court New Delhi
eg: Supreme Court, NID Ahmedabad, PWDs
● Building new housing programs and cities
eg: Laxmibai Nagar, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar City
● They are influenced by Indo-Saracenic, Bauhaus and Art Deco.

Senate House, Kerala University, Trivandrum

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

 Nehruvian Nation Building Initiatives

● After 1947, the architecture of India was influenced by two

opposing philosophies.
a) Gandhian philosophy of a simple life and restoration of the
Indian village as the foundation of the future country.
a) Jawaharlal Nehru’s image of a socialist, industrialised modern
India, free of poverty, and unfettered by past constraints.

VISION OF NEHRU:
● Nehru believed that architecture was important in building a
cultural vision of a new, democratic and egalitarian society
and a new citizen, and that the radical modern movement in
Europe with its socialist roots was a model of inspiration.

Construction of the Chandigarh

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

 Nehruvian Nation Building Initiatives

1. He encouraged young Indian architects to move to Delhi, many

of whom joined government institutions which were being set up
then.
2. New capital cities of Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and
Bhubaneswar was conceived, planned and designed by
European and British architects.
Eg: Chandigarh led by the visionary Le Corbusier.
3. Nehru laid the foundation for India's scientific and engineering
temper by establishing several institutes, such as the ISRO and
IITs.
4. Heavy investment in the manufacturing sector and industrial
cities.

Construction of the Chandigarh

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Planning Commission and public sector led industrialisation

● After independence, its democratic setup involved industrialists as well as economists to work
independently and form development plans. It enhanced country’s economic planning.
● India espoused formal model of planning by constituting its 1st Planning Commission after independence
on March 15, 1950.
● This Commission team was authorized to report to Prime Minister directly as first Prime Minister, Pundit
Jawaharlal Nehru was its chairman and rest members were supposed to work in synchronization with
Deputy Chairman of this Commission.
● Main purpose to constitute Five-year Plans and its launch in 1951.
● Based on this, industrial towns and capital cities were established.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

 Planning Commission and public sector led industrialisation

Functions of the Indian Planning Commission

○ To make an evaluation of the material, capital and human resources of the country.
○ To devise a plan for the most effective and balanced utilisation of country’s resources.
○ To define the stages, on the basis of priority, in which the plan should be implemented
○ To specify the factors that tends to retard economic development.
○ To determine the conditions which need to be established for the execution of the plan.
○ To determine the nature of the mechanism required for success of the plan.
○ To evaluate from time to time the improvement in implementation.
○ To make required recommendations from time to time regarding those things which are deemed necessary for
facilitating the execution of these functions.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Industrial Town - Bhilai

○ Bhilai, city and major industrial centre, central

Chhattisgarh state, east-central India.
○ Contemporary Bhilai is a planned city, divided
into sectors with low-density, mostly
single-story housing.
○ A major government-operated steel plant,
southeast of the city, was built in collaboration
with the Soviet Union during India’s Second
Five-Year Plan (1956–61).
○ Other industries in Bhilai include a cement
plant, a sulfuric acid plant, an ammonium
sulfate plant, and sawmills.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Industrial Town - Rourkela

○ The city of Rourkela is a well known industrial township of Odisha.

○ The city is known for housing the largest steel plant, SAIL (Steel Authority of India).
○ Rourkela serves as a hub for the iron ore extraction in the city, and its nearby areas.
○ In the year 1952 one of the well established German Organization took the initiative to establish the steel factory in the city of Rourkela,
which was accepted by the Government of Odisha. The major part of the economy of Rourkela is dependent on the RSP (Rourkela
Steel Plant) as it provides the maximum opportunities of employment here.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

 Industrial Town - Durgapur, near Calcutta

○ Located in West Bengal near Calcutta

○ Master plan prepared by Joseph Allen Stein and
Benjamin Polk in 1955.
○ Special care was taken to avoid urban monotony,
row housing and low standards of life.
○ Nehru’s principle of industrialized India by
providing workers with dignified housing of timeless
quality at low cost.
○ Designed for 50,000 workers.
○ It was based on neighbourhood unit or superblock
of upto 1000 dwellings with a middle school,
community centre, OAT, parks and open spaces.
○ Focused on Nehru’s principles of lack of caste ,
socio-economic , gender, education differences.
○ There was possibility of future expansion..

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

Princely State - Jaipur

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

New Capital City - New Delhi

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

New Capital City - Bhubaneswar, Orissa

○ New Capital of Orissa

○ Master plan prepared by Dr
Otto.H.Koenigsberger in 1946
○ City established in 1948 CE to serve as
administrative centre for the state, on the basis of
Neighbourhood Unit Planning.
○ All Neighbourhood units have major amenities with
a population of 5000-6000 people.
○ Focused on Nehru’s principles of lack of caste ,
socio-economic , gender, education differences.
○ Capitol complex has Secretariat, Leg Assembly,
High Court etc
○ There were various hierarchy of roads.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

New Capital City - Chandigarh

○ Capital of Haryana and Punjab

○ Master plan prepared by Le Corbusier ni 1950’s.
○ He incorporated Garden City and Radiant City
concepts.
○ Capital Complex consists of High Court,
Secretariat, and Legislative Assembly.
○ Grid iron plan based on hierarchy of movement
from highways to pedestrian walkways.
○ He divide the city into Sectors, each having
residential and commercial zone.
○ The head is the Capitol Complex, heart is the
Commercial Centre and the arms are the academic
and leisure facilities.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

New Capital City - Gandhinagar

○ Located on the Sabarmati River upstream from

Ahmedabad.
○ Design of the city by Gujarat PWD, directed by
Hargovind K Medwa, is based on Chandigarh
rectangular grid system.
○ Capitol complex is at the heart.
○ The architecture is large scale and follows
Chandigarh patterns.
○ Each residential sector houses 7000 people each.
○ It is based on Neighbourhood Unit Concept with
schools, playgrounds, shopping centres, and parks
nearby.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT

 Works of Corbusier and Louis Kahn in India
and their influences on Indian architects

● From 1950, there was an increasing number of architects from South Asia
migrating to Europe and the United States for advanced studies.
● Some of these would later return, setting up practice and often evolving
highly original styles of work, combining Western rationalism and
architectural theory with vernacular tradition.
IIT Kanpur, Achyuth Kanvinde
● Indian architects who were educated in the United States in the 1940’s and
1950’s started the Indian School of Modernist Architecture.
● Neo-modernist architecture in India could well be regarded as the third
generation of post-independence modern architecture.
● They style included Regional architecture within the modernist fold.
For example
● Gropius has influenced Achyut Kanvinde
● Le-Corbusier has influenced B. V. Doshi
● Louis Kahn has influenced Anant Raje
IIM Bangalore, B V Doshi
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE -IV I CAT