Reinterpreting Traditional Aspects To Coexist With Contemporary Times

Indian architecture is rooted in its history, culture and religion.

- Charanjit S. Shah

It progressed with time and assimilated the many influences that came as a result of India’s global discourse with other regions of the world. Right from the Indus Valley Civilisation to the modern era, India has undergone a drastic change in its architecture. ‘Modern architecture’ as a revolutionary and innovative force started to make cautious headway in India in the early 1930s, but a spark towards it was ignited during the post independence period.

The monuments had begun to be viewed in the context of that time. Not to be imitated, modern India required modern architectural symbols and forms to express the dynamism of a free people on their march to economic development. Then a breakthrough was made with the design of Golconde at the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Golconde was the first expression of a new era about to commence for contemporary Indian architecture. A unique urban architectural experiment was made in the development of Chandigarh by the French architect, Le Corbusier. The post-partition group of architects had been exposed to Le Corbusier and other European masters, and was also influenced by masters of American modernism. A pioneering attempt to use a new architectural vocabulary to express both cultural continuity and ambiguity of that time was made by Charles Correa. India was torn between the twin pressures of traditional belief systems and a simultaneous desire for modernisation, and it could have come only from Correa. As the process of industrialisation got under way, a new trend of structural designing was born.