After the Masters: Contemporary Indian Architecture.

• Author: Khan, Hasan Uddin

By Vikram Bhatt and Peter Scriver. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 1990. Pp. 222, 83 drawings, 268 plates, 103 in color, map. $45.

Trying to present diverse contemporary architecture is a difficult task at the best of times, when there is an absence of "critical distance" (to use a Framptonesque phrase). And Indian architectures--I use the plural advisedly--have many cultural roots, climates, materials and building traditions that make this task even more formidable. It is, however, the one that the authors of this book attempt and largely succeed in achieving.

The title of the work suggests that not only is their starting point the "Masters" who worked in India, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn being the most prominent, but that Indian architecture since independence in 1947 springs from them. The very idea of an Indian architecture begins the questions in the book that culminate in characterizations of identity. This issue of expressing cultural identity in architecture has perhaps been the dominant quest of those dealing with the built environment of Asia and Africa over the past twenty years, be it the client or the architect. Coupled with the more recent wish to take cognizance of the architectural heritage, it has propelled architects and theoreticians alike to try and make sense of their built environment and its place within a global framework. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which deals with Muslim-specific building; writers such as Brian Taylor, William Curtis, Romi Khosla, Ken Yeang and Sumet Jumsai; and publications such as the (now defunct) international quarterly Mimar and India's Architecture & Design all explore these themes. Despite numerous seminars on the subject and publications, this is the first book on India that tries to knit examples of built works into some kind of architectural paradigm.

The book begins with passing reference to the colonialist heritage but mercifully does not dwell this period, which is still often blamed for subverting the country's indigenous building. Le Corbusiees (1950s) and Kahn's (1960s) legacies are cited as the predominant influence on India's senior generation of architects, including Achyut Kanvinde, Balkrishna Doshi, Joseph Stein, and Charles Correa. These architects and others such as Raj Rewal, the Design Group, Kirtee Shah and Uttam Jain also began to examine their "roots"--these being primarily based on essentially rural vernular traditions, although, on occasion, Mughal antecedents...