Charles correa

Charles Correa is an Indian architect and urban planner, particularly noted for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban poor and for his use of

traditional methods and materials

CHARLES CORREA

•Education

1946-1948 inter-science. St. Xavier's college, university of Bombay1949-1955 B.Arch., University of Michigan.

1953-1955 M.Arch., Massachusetts institute of technology.

•Professional Experience

1955-1958 partner with G.M. BHUTA associates1958- to date in private practice.1964-1965 prepared master plan proposing twin city across the harbour

from Bombay.1969-1971 invited by the govt. of Peru1971-1975 chief architect to CIDCO1975-1976 consultant to UN secretary-general for HABITAT1975-1983 Chairman Housing Urban Renewal & Ecology Board1985 chairman dharavavi planning commission

•Born into a middle-class Catholic family in Bombay•Became fascinated with the principles of design as a child•At Michigan two professors who influenced him the most -Walter Salders and Buckminister Fuller.•Kevin lynch , then in the process of developing his themes for image of the city triggered Correa’s interest in urban issues•‘India of those days was a different place, it was a brand-new country, there was so much hope; India stimulated me.’

Principles

Few cardinal principles in his vast body of work;• Incrementality• Pluralism• Participation• Income generation• Equity• Open-to-sky space• Disaggregation.Belapur housing being the one project where hehas literally used these principals

OPEN TO SKY CONCEPT

In India, the sky has profoundly affected our relationship to built form, and to open space. For in a warm climate, the best place to be in the late evenings and in the early mornings, is outdoors, under the open sky. Such spaces have an infinite number of variations: one steps out of a room. . . into a verandah. . . And thence on to a terrace from which one proceeds to an open courtyard, perhaps shaded by a tree . . . or by a large pergola overhead. At each moment, subtle changes in the quality of light and ambient air generate feelings within us feelings which are central to our beings.

COMPONENTS:-

•COURTYARDS & TERRACES•URBANIZATION•THE MACHINE FOR LIVING•WORKSPACES•LEISURE•THE RITUALISTIC PATHWAY•METAPHORS

COURTYARDS & TERRACES

Low-income housing;Gujarat Housing Board

Kanchanjunga Rallis Apartments

BED BEDLIVING

Colonial Bungalow

PLAN

BED

BED BED

BEDLIVING

DINING

VERANDAH

KITCHEN

Jeevan Bima Nagar, Borivili

•CAN MAKE A DECISIVE DIFFERENCE B/W LIVABLE HABITAT AND CLAUSTROPHOBIA•PARTICULARLY FOR THE LOWEST INCOME GROUP•EVEN IN DENSE HOUSING, INDIVIDUAL TERRAES CAN BE GIVEN•SUCH SPACES NOT ONLY IMPROVE LIVING CONDITIONS, BUT ALSO HAS ECONOMIC VALUE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRY LIKE INDIA•THESE PRINCIPLES ARE VIABLE ALSO IN THE HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS, WHERE THE ISSUE IS COMPOUNDED BY THE HOT HUMID CLIMATE EG- SONMARG APPARTMENTS, KANCHANJUNGA APPARTMENTS.

URBANIZATION

Squatter Housing Belapur Housing, New Bombay

Such open-to-sky spaces are of course of crucial importance to the poorest inhabitants: the squatters. Obviously there is an appalling mismatch between the way our cities have been built and the way we use them today.

THE MACHINE FOR LIVING

Another equally critical parameter: Energy. architects have depended more and more on the mechanical engineer to provide light and air within the building.

WORK SPACES

to deal with solar protection involved various forms of brise-soleil. this kind of concrete Louvre, while providing powerful visual imagery for the built form, can be counter-productive. The concrete heats up during the long hot day and then acts as an enormous radiator in the evening, rendering the rooms unbearable.

A kit-of-parts came into existence:-• the section which facilitates convection currents• the internal zone of micro-climate• The stepped terraces• the pergola roof

THE RITUAUSTIC PATHWAY

A METAPHOR FOR THE INDIAN STREET, TAKING THE VISITOR FROM VILLAGE TO TEMPLE TO PALACE.

METAPHORS

The relationship of architecture to the other arts is a crucial one. Murals and sculpture are used not just to provide references to local traditions and events, but really to bring back into balance the spatial tensions generated by the built form.

use elements from the kit-of-parts:-abstract color and realistic images, setting up a dialectic between built form and visual imagery – a complex interaction which can adds layers of metaphorical and metaphysical dimensions toarchitecture.

These buildings possess not only an extraordinary beauty of proportion, materials, etc., but they also project, withastonishing force, polemic ideas about ourselves and our relationship with the Non-manifest World.

KANCHANJUNGA APPARTMENTS1970-1983

JEEVAN BHARTI , DELHI (1975-86)• When the building came up in the 1980s, architect Charles Correa was

criticized for making it too futurist.• This office complex of LIC is situated on the outer road of Connaught circle

and acts as a pivot between the colonnades of CP and new generation of high rise towers that now surround it . Thus the building is both a proscenium and a backdrop: a 12 storey stage set whose faceted glass surface reflects the buildings and trees around CP.

http://archnet.org/authorities/9/publications/7098

JEEVAN BHARTI , DELHI• Offices are located in two separate wings creating a built up of 6300 sq. m.

A 98 meters long pergola connects the two buildings .

http://archnet.org/authorities/9/publications/7098

BHARAT BHAWAN(1975-1981)• Bharat Bhavan is an autonomous multi-arts complex and museum

in the state of capital bhopal, established and funded by the government of mp facing the upper lake , bhopal, it houses an art gallery, a fine art workshops, an open-air amphitheatre, a studio theatre, an auditorium, a museum tribal and folk art, libraries of Indian poetry, classical music as well as folk music.

http://archnet.org/authorities/9/sites/1405

BHARAT BHAWAN• The natural contours of the site have been used to create series

of terraced gardens and sunken courtyards.• The profound hierarchy in the organization of spaces, is what

allows for the transition courtyards to develop an informality and openness which gives this space its character, as a platform for sharing and building up cultural ideas.

• Lighting and ventilation within the building are provided with top lights (slots along the parapets).

BRITISH COUNCIL LIBRARY (1987-1992)

THIS NEW BUILDING FOR THE BRITISH COUNCIL HOUSES A NUMBER OF DIVERSE FUNCTIONS, INCLUDING A LIBRARY, AN AUDITORIUM, AN ART GALLERY AND THE HEADQUARTERS OF THEIR OFFICES IN INDIA.

ENTRANCE

CORREA’S IDEA FOR THE BUILDING WAS TO EXPRESS THE THREE BASIC CULTURAL IDENTITIES THAT HAVE SHAPED CONTEMPORARY INDIA: HINDU, MUSLIM AND EUROPEAN.

•AT THE FARTHEST END IS THE AXIS MUNDI OF HINDUISM, A SPIRAL SYMBOLISING BINDU- THE ENERGY CENTRE OF THE COSMOS.

•THE NEXT NODAL POINT, LOCATED IN THE MAIN COURTYARD, IS CENTERED AROUND ANOTHER MYTHIC IMAGE: THE TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC CHAR BAGH, i.e. GARDEN OF PARADISE.

•THE THIRD NODAL POINT ALONG THE AXIS IS A EUROPEAN ICON, INLAID IN MARBLE AND GRANITE.

SITE PLAN

SITE SECTION

COX’S SCULPTURE SITS IN THE HINDU COURT, AT THE POINT OF BINDU.

VIEW ACROSS THE INNER COURTYARDS, WITH IN THE FOREGROUND AN INTERPRETATION OF THE LAYOUT OF THE ISLAMIC GARDEN OF PARADSE

EUROPEAN ICON, USED TO REPRESENT THE AGE OF REASON, NCLUDING THE MYTHIC VALUES OF SCIENCE AND PROGRESS

JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA(1986-1992)

•IT IS AN ARTS CENTRE DEDICATED TO JAWAHARLAL NEHRU•LIKE THE CITY, IT IS ALSO DOUBLE CODED: A CONTEMPORARY BUILDING BASED ON AN ARCHAIC NOTION OF THE COSMOS: THE NAVGRAH MANDALA•ONE OF THE SQUARES MOVED ASIDE TO PROVIDE ENTRY, JUST LIKE IT WAS IN THE ORIGINAL CITY PLAN OF JAIPUR.

GENESIS OF JAIPUR

GENESIS OF JAWAHAR KALA KENDRAJAIPUR CITY PLAN

SHANI SURYA MANGAL

SECTION

NINE PLANETS

EACH OF THE NINE PLANETS IS REPRESENTED BY A SQUARE, 30M x 30M, DEFINED BY RED SANDSTONE WALLS, 8M HIGH. THE PROGRAMME FOR THE ARTS CENTRE IS DISAGGREGATED INTO NINE SEPARATE GROUPINGS, EACH CORRESPONDIG TO THE MYTHS OF A PARTICULAR PLANET.THE TRADITIONAL SYMBOL OF EACH PLANET IS EXPRESSED IN MARBLE AND STONE INLAY IN THE STONE WALLS THAT SURROUND IT. THE CENTRAL SQUARE, AS SPECIFIED IN THE ANCIENT VEDIC SHASTRAS, IS A VOID: REPRESENTING THE NOTHING- WHICH IS THE TRUE SOURCE OF ALL ENERGY.

THE EXTERNAL WALLS OF THE BUILDING (INCLUDING THOSE AROUND THE KUND) ARE CLAD IN RED AGRA SANDSTONE, TOPPED BY A COPING OF BEIGE DHOLPUR STONE- THE SAME MATERIALS USED FOR THE JANTAR MANTAR OBSERVATORY, IN THE RED FORT AT AGRA, AND IN FATEHPUR SIKRI

ON THESE EXTERNAL SURFACES, THE PRESENCE OF EACH OF THE PLANETS IS EXPRESSED BY ITS TRADITIONAL SYMBOL INLAID IN WHITE MARBLE, RECALLING AGAIN THE PRECISELY CALIBRATED SURFACES OF THE ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS AT THE JANTAR MANTAR OBSERVATORY

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTER FOR THE UNKNOWN

• Opened on 5th october,2010

• Location : Lisbon , Portugal on the waterfront.

• Historical significance as portugese sailed from this location to discover the ‘unknown lands’.

http://www.archdaily.com/140623/champalimaud-centre-for-the-unknown-charles-correa-associates/

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTER• Has curved stone forms with circular

cut- aways.• Comprises two buildings , first-

research laboratories and treatment rooms , second housing an auditorium and exhibition area.

• A central pathway crosses the site between the buildings , leading towards two monolithic stone sculptures and an outdoor amphitheater.

• Above the pathway , a glass tubular bridge connects the two buildings together.

http://www.fchampalimaud.org/en/the-foundation/champalimaud-centre-unknown/

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTER• Attempted to use nature as therapy. The water around us. The sky above.

The healing presence of rain forests . All these are therapies for the patients.

• Uses the highest levels of contemporary science and medicine to help people grappling with real problems; cancer, brain damage , blindness.

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTER• The buildings are arranged to create a 125

m long pedestrian pathway leading diagonally across the site , towards open seas.

• Pathway is on an incline so that while walking upwards one can only see the sky.

• At the top of the ramp there are two stone monoliths , straight from the quarry.

• From the highest point , a large body of water is visible which appears to connct to the ocean beyond.

• In the center of the water body, just below the surface is an oval shaped stainless stell object , slightly convex so that it reflects the blue sky and passing clouds above.

The sky, all said and done, is the source of light - which is the most primordial of

stimuli acting on our senses. And across its face, every day, passes the sun – the origin of Life itself ! . . . Small wonder then that manhas always perceived the sky above to be the abode of the gods,

and that down all these many millennia, it has exerted such extraordinary power on us and on the architecture we build.

-CHARLES CORREA