VISIONARY BUILDER

This biography of the eminent architect Charles Correa highlights his penchant for design innovation and a sense of social responsibility

- Gautam Bhatia

Charles Correa once wrote that people's desperate demands for daily subsistence ensures there is no place for architects and architecture in India. As a new monograph on the architect explains, architecture in India is largely an expression of middle-class affluence, and the poor have rarely benefitted from the profession. Written by Mustansir Dalvi, himself an architect, the book is a simply presented and thoroughly researched biography that traces Correa's childhood, his growth as an architect, to his extraordinary achievements. Planned as an affordable student production, the book is small-sized, uses cheap paper and carries virtually no illustrations-far too modest a product for a subject as richly textured and complex as Correa.