Details
Keywords Change this
Modernism In India, Modernism, Post-independence Architecture In India
Birth date / place
September 1st 1930, Secunderabad, IndiaSelected Architecture

- Vidhan Sabha Bhavan
- Tube Housing
- PREVI
- Correa Previ's housing
- Jawahar Kala Kendra
- Kanchenjunga Apartments
Practice / Active in Change this
Mumbai, India
Awards Change this
- 1984 - Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal
- 1987 - Indian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
- 1990 - International Union of Architects Gold Medal
- 1994 - Praemium Imperiale for Architecture from the Japan Art Association
Article last edited by Bostjan on
September 04th, 2020
Charles Correa Change this
About Change this
Charles Mark Correa (1 September 1930 – 16 June 2015) was an Indian architect, planner, activist, and theoretician. His work was one of the first manifestations of the image of post-independence India. He was celebrated by RIBA as "India's Greatest Architect" for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban poor and for his use of traditional methods and materials.
Biography
Charles Correa, was born on 1 September 1930 in Secunderabad. He began his higher studies at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. And went on to study architecture at the University of Michigan (1949–53) where Richard Buckminster Fuller was his teacher. After which he pursued his MArch (1953–55) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After MIT Correa returned to India to start his own practice (1958-200) where he worked till his He taught and lectured at many universities, both in India and abroad, including MIT, Harvard University, the University of London, and Cambridge University, where he was Nehru Professor.Charles Correa had a 60 years long career in architecture and his 100+ buildings in India along with a number of projects abroad are highly celebrated.
Work
In 1958, Charles Correa established his own professional practice in Mumbai. His first significant project was the Mahatma Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Mahatma Gandhi Memorial) at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad (1958–1963), followed by the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Bhopal (1967). In 1961-1966, he designed his first high-rise building in Mumbai, the Sonmarg apartments with a verandah running all along the peripheries of all apartments to passively cool the house. He lived there till his last day. In the National Crafts Museum in New Delhi (1975–1990), he introduced "the rooms open to the sky", his systematic use of courtyards. In the Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jawahar Arts Centre) in Jaipur (1986–1992), he made a structural homage to Jai Singh II. Later, he invited the British artist Howard Hodgkin for the outside design of the British Council in Delhi (1987–1992).From 1970–75, Charles Correa was Chief Architect for New Bombay (Navi Mumbai), where he was strongly involved in extensive urban planning of the new city. In 1984, Charles Correa founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay, dedicated to the protection of the built environment and improvement of urban communities. During the final four decades of his life, Correa has done pioneering work in urban issues and low-cost shelter in the Third World. In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization.
He was a member of the 1980, 1983, 1986, and 2001 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Steering Committees, and of the 1989 Award Master Jury. He was presented an Aga Khan Award for Architecture during the 1998 cycle as the architect of Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal, India.
From 2005 until his 2008 resignation Correa was the Chairman of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission.
In the last leg of his practice, Charles Correa designed the new Ismaili Centre in Toronto, Canada, which shared the site with the Aga Khan Museum designed by Fumihiko Maki, and the Champalimaud Foundation Centre in Lisbon, inaugurated by the Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva on 5 October 2010.
Foundation
In 2011, Correa founded Charles Correa Foundation (CCF)in Goa, India, to address the gap that exists between ideas originated by citizens and their implementation by government bodies. Therefore, CCF acts as a catalyst for architectural, urban design, planning, and community-based projects that improve the condition of human settlements in India.It also provides scholarships, fellowships, prizes and other awards as support to students of architecture including Exchange Programmes and Academic Chairs for architecture and planning.
Archive
In 2013 Correa donated his archive to the Royal Institute of British Architect (RIBA). Correa’s gift of his archive of over 6000 drawings, photographs and models of his best-known work, such as the British Council building in Delhi and the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal, his designs for housing and cities, including his masterplan for the township of Navi Mumbai were displayed and celebrated by the RIBA in an exhibition that ran from 14 May 2013 to 4 September 2013 at the RIBA building. The exhibition was called “Charles Correa: India’s greatest architect.”, was curated by Dr Irena Murray and designed by David Adjaye.While RIBA took care of the physical archive, Correa with a small team of architects from his Mumbai home took care of the digitalization of his archive. Charles Correa Archive now is a digital platform available to students, researchers, institutes and architecture schools all over the world to learn from the legacy of works that Charles Correa has left behind.
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