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The Pritzker Prize, the Architectural community’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, was secured by B V Doshi this year.
Doshi is the first Indian architect to be awarded the prize. The 90-year-old was given the prize on the basis of his 70-year-long career for “his numerous contributions as an architect, urban planner, teacher, for his steadfast example of integrity and his tireless contributions to India and beyond, the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury selects Balkrishna Doshi as the 2018 Pritzker Laureate,” according to the jury citation. Former chairman of the Tata group, Ratan Tata, was a member of this year's jury.
“Doshi is acutely aware of the context in which his buildings are located. His solutions take into account the social, environmental and economic dimensions, and therefore his architecture is totally engaged with sustainability.”
He was a jury member for the Prtizker from 2005 to 2007.
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi was born in 1927 in Pune. He joined the Sir JJ school of art and architecture and started his long career by working for the legendary modern architect Le Corbusier in Paris and in London for the first decade. Corbusier is also credited with designing the layout of Chandigarh — Independent India’s first planned city.
In a video by released Pritzker, Doshi said “Corbusier looked at a building as a living being and he thought that buildings and architecture and environment and life all go together as one entity, there was no distinction between object and living, they both merged” he says. “This I think was my greatest gift from him.”
His works are particularly known for being sustainable. This means using the locally available material for building, as well as designing the building to take advantage of the climate to ensure livable conditions.
Some of his key works include the CEPT campus, the Aranya low-cost housing, the IIM Bangalore campus and his Ahmedabad studio called Sangath.
Doshi, along with his contemporary, the late Charles Correa, are credited with giving the traditional design principles that developed in India over the centuries a modern aesthetic.
Aside from being an architect and urban planner, Doshi is also an educator, where he founded the Ahmedabad School of Architecture, currently known as the Centre of Environment Planning and Techonology in the 60s (CEPT).
The Pritzker Architecture Prize was first awarded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, to commemorate the work of living architects whose“built work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through architecture.”
The award is given out annually. Winners of the prize get a USD 100,000 grant, a formal citation certificate, and a bronze medallion since 1987.
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