India’s renowned architect and modern urban planner Charles Correa, who planned the city of Navi Mumbai and designed several landmark complexes in the country like the Madhya Pradesh legislative Assembly and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, passed away here on Tuesday night. Correa had not been keeping well for quite some time. He was 84. His last rites will be performed on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned Correa’s death and paid rich tributes to the departed architect. “My deepest condolences on the passing away of noted architect Mr Charles Correa. May his soul rest in peace… Correa’s architectural marvels are widely cherished, reflecting his brilliance, innovative zeal and wonderful aesthetic sense,” the Prime Minister tweeted.
Described by the Royal Institute of British Architects as “India’s greatest architect”, Correa was among a few contemporary architects of repute. Through his extraordinary and inspiring designs, he contributed in a big way to the creation of a modern architecture for post-Independence India.
Born in Secunderabad on September 1, 1930, Correa studied at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai. He later did his higher studies at the University of Michigan and the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Apart from addressing issues of architecture, he contributed a great deal for low-income housing and urban planning.
Being the chief architect of Navi Mumbai — one of the world’s largest planned townships that came up in the eastern trans-harbour of Mumbai in 1972, Correa was involved in several low-income housing projects in the satellite city of Mumbai.
Correa’s architecture work ranged from a carefully designed Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur. He was appointed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as the first Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanisation.
Correa taught at several universities, both in India and abroad. Among the educational institutions where he taught abroad was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was Farwell Bemis Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning.
In 1967 Correa designed the Madhya Pradesh legislative Assembly in Bhopal. He also designed the distinctive buildings of National Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1975-1990), Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1982), Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jawahar Arts Centre) in Jaipur, Rajasthan (1986-1992), British Council, Delhi (1987-92), the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Boston (2000-2005), City Centre (Salt lake City, Kolkata) (2004), and the Champalimaud Centre for The Unknown in lisbon, Portugal (2007-2010).
Having been awarded the Padma Shri in 1972, Correa was bestowed with the second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan in 2006, by the Government of India. He was also awarded the 1984 Royal Gold Medal for architecture, by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The projects that Correa took up in the later years included the new Ismaili Centre in Toronto, Canada and Champalimaud Foundation Centre in lisbon. He founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Mumbai in 1984. Among other honours that Correa received were the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Praemium Imperiale of Japan.