The Pritzker Prize and RIBA Gold Medal winner passed away in India earlier today following a 70-year career
Pritzker Prize-winning Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has died at the age of 95.
Doshi passed away earlier today in Ahmedabad, India, according to multiple news outlets in the country.
It comes a year after he received the RIBA Gold Medal for 2022, an award personally approved by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his significant global influence on architecture.
Doshi also received the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards from the Indian government, and in 2011 received France’s highest honour for the arts, the Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi today described Doshi as a “brilliant architect and a remarkable institution builder”.
“The coming generations will get glimpses of his greatness by admiring his rich work across India. His passing away is saddening. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Modi said.
Architectural Digest India said on its Instagram page that Doshi was a “master wielder of form and light” and had left an “indelible legacy.”
The outlet described him as “India’s greatest architect” and a “true inspiration to the people of [India]”, adding his passing was a “heartbreaking loss”.
Doshi started his 70-year career working with modernist pioneers Le Corbusier and Louis Khan, and went on to design more than 100 projects which have been highly influential across the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Born in 1927 in Pune, he studied at the J J school of architecture in Mumbai before working for four years with Le Corbusier in Paris as senior designer between 1951 and 1954.
He founded his own practice, Vastushilpa in 1956 and has become internationally known for his visionary urban planning and social housing projects, as well as his work in education, both in India and as a visiting professor at universities around the world.
His major projects include the 1967 Tagore Hall and Memorial Theatre, a 700-seat brutalist auditorium in Ahmedabad, and Sangath, the studio for his practice which was built in 1981.
Architect and former RIBA presidential candidate Sumita Singha reacted to the news by saying: “Celebrating the wonderful life and architectural expressions of B V Doshi, who has passed away. A frequent visitor to Delhi where I studied, he was always generous with his time and gentle with his advice!”
Architect and BD columnist Satish Jassal said: ”Balkrishna Doshi was a unique architect who could truly combine both Eastern and Western approaches and, at the same time, root his buildings into their places. His phenomenological approach transcends architecture, as does he.”
RIBA president Simon Allford said Doshi was “an original and independent thinker” when 2022’s Gold medal was awarded, adding he had “influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture”.
Despite his advanced years, Doshi told the Financial Times last year: “I don’t feel old. I’m still a child. Architecture is about being happy and giving people a place where they are able to smile. It is a celebration of life. And life must be celebrated.”
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