Acclaimed architect Balkrishna Doshi was on Tuesday conferred the prestigious Royal Gold Medal 2022, one of the world's highest honours for architecture, by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Doshi, 94, is the only one from India and to have been awarded both the Royal Gold Medal and the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. He is credited with designing some of the most iconic structures in Ahmedabad. Some of his key projects include the Shreyas Comprehensive School Campus, Ahmedabad (1958-63); Atira Guest House, Ahmedabad (1958); The Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad (1962); Ahmed-abad School of Architecture (1966 - renamed CEPT University in 2002); Tagore Hall and Memorial Theatre, Ahmedabad (1967); Premabhai Hall, Ahmedabad (1976); IIM Bangalore (1977-1992); Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad (1984); and Amdavad ni Gufa (1994). Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) president Simon Allford, for the first time, came to Ahmedabad award Doshi, as he could not got to London to receive the award due to his health condition. Talking to mediapersons at Doshi's house in Ahmedabad, Allford, said, "Doshi had never formally studied architecture. So he learned architecture from his family and from two great architects -Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. What he has done in his 70-year-old career is make architecture as a great generosity not only accommodating life but skilful enough, clever enough to have an identity to people who continues to adapt and enjoy architecture. He has developed philosophy of architecture as a living organism not a design object." Calling it one of the memorable events to receive the award which his "guru" Le Corbusier too had been awarded with, Doshi said, "The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with my 'guru' who in 1953 had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal. I vividly recollect his excitement on receiving this honour," Doshi added. "Nothing awesome (adhbhut) has happened in my life than this. It is a joyful event for me that so many people know you. I am indebted to the society," he added. Born in 1927 in Pune to an extended family of furniture makers, Doshi studied at the JJ School of Architecture, Bombay, before working for four years with Le Corbusier as Senior Designer (1951-54) in Paris and four more years in India to supervise projects in Ahmedabad. He worked with Louis Kahn as an associate to build the Indian institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and they continued to collaborate for over a decade. He founded his own practice, Vastushilpa in 1956 with two architects. Today, Vastushilpa is a multi-disciplinary practise with five partners spanning three generations and has sixty employees. Doshi, who always aspired "to do a good job", said that architecture "happened by instinct". "I was brought up in my grandfather's house in Pune and that house was growing every time because of addition to the family. That growing house made an impact on me on houses that grow, the staircases that goes across and the mohalla where you meet across and you talk to people in balconies and the communities. I was interested in the community and cultural life and its impact on buildings," he said. Having learnt from the pols of Ahmedabad, he said, "I would go often to pols of Ahmedabad to see how many houses have changed, how many are being transformed and that made me to get into architecture, not really as a product but as a process. Normally, we design a building and that building does not change but if you go to old city and other places buildings have changed over time. I am fascinated by that and that is how I started the School of Architecture in 1962 in Ahmedabad which today is the CEPT University." In a career spanning over 100 projects, Doshi has influenced the direction of architecture in India and its adjacent regions through both his practice and his teaching. His buildings combine pioneering modernism with vernacular, informed by a deep appreciation of the traditions of India's architecture, climate, local culture, and craft. "Unfortunately we look at architecture at buildings and second client as a customer who is using spaces but we never look at that they belong together, they make a community. First thing we have to do as an architect and not as a builder not to make rooms but create living spaces gathering spaces and spaces where you are interacting with society," he said. The present day architecture and architects are not talking about people, but about facilities, he added. Among all his projects, Doshi says, Aranya Low Cost Housing in Indore (1989) of 8000 houses is closest to his heart "Nobody living there had a house but if you go there, you will see what kind of settlement it should be and how people live. Every person has constructed these houses as per his own choice.. Aranya in Indore is closest to me heart because I made that and people have changed, they became a community. It is not a housing but became a community," Doshi shared. On the "very English process" of selection for the award, Simon revealed that RIBA has a global membership of 8,000 members from around the world who nominate people for the award. "Keeping the democracy, members nominate and I as the president sit down with the group of four people and review the nominations. Then we are charged to make a decision on behalf of the institution. Recognising the extraordinary life and career of Doshi as a teacher and architect, we wrote to the Queen and as the process suggest that we want to give the medal. She agrees and then she writes back, gives us the medal which we have given to Mr Doshi. So it is a very English process," he said.
