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Charles M. Correa
An Architect of Range and Sensitivity
by Lee Katterman
Office of the Vice President for Research
Slides shown at Feb. 1999 Regents Meeting
In a career that spans the design of great buildings and cities to plans for effective, affordable housing, few can match Charles Correa's accomplishments. Born in India in 1930 and still practicing there today, this 1953 graduate of the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) is a major figure in contemporary architecture.
From museums to government buildings, universities to apartments for low-income families, Correa has left his mark. "In addition to his many architectural works built all on the Indian Subcontinent and all over the world, Correa has been one of the pioneers in developing frugal, culturally-rooted shelter in the developing world," says Douglas Kelbaugh, CAUP Dean and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning.
A catalogue of Correa's many accomplishments includes the Mahatma Gandhi Museum in Ahmedabad, built in the 1960s; the Jawahar Kala Kendra Museum in Jaipur, built only a decade ago; and the recently completed Bhopal State Assembly Building.
In 1964, Correa and two colleagues proposed the planning concepts that formed the basis for "New Bombay," a development for two million people that sought to change the existing urban structure in the Bombay metropolitan region. These and other projects, such as the low-income Previ Housing project in Peru, utilize many of the same architectural principles put to use in his prestigious commissioned works.
Correa's portfolio in the 1980s includes the Bharat Bhavan Arts Centre in Bhopal, the Cidade de Goa Hotel at Dona Paula, and the Kanchanjunga Apartments in Bombay.
In 1998, the Bhopal State Assembly project, more a government complex than a building, earned Correa the Aga Kahn Award, which is given to distinguished works of architecture in the Muslim World every three years. Robert Campbell, the architecture critic for the Boston Globe recently called the Aga Kahn Award the "wisest prize program in architecture. It's the most serious, the most thoroughly researched, the most thoughtful."
The Vidhan Bhavan, according to the award jury, "develops a new imagery based on local forms. It breaks the myth that modern architecture cannot be adapted to Asian nations and environments." Adds Campbell, "The Assembly reads more like a walled city than a single building. Inside its outer wall, it is a labyrinth of bridges and ramps and courts and gates and small domes," all created to serve the many different functions of state government that use this building.
Brian Carter, UM professor of architecture and chair of the CAUP architecture program, notes that Correa's designs "respond to the climate of India. His vocabulary is of today, yet derived from the physical setting and many traditional values of Indian society."
Correa calls for locally available building materials of brick and masonry and the local craftspeople who have been using these materials for centuries, explains Carter, while taking cues from western technology in his designs. His housing designs use courtyards and screens to protect from the hot sun while expanding the useful living area according to the season of the year.
"Correa fills the role of architect as a collaborator with the people," says Carter. "His designs give the local craftsmen a chance to do their best work."
When Correa was asked recently to describe the role of the architect, he said, "In India, there are traditional ways of building habitats that are wonderfully ingenious -- and beautiful! These typologies also yield high densities, since Indian families are used to small overall areas with a high occupancy per room. The only problem, of course, is that many of these traditional solutions aren't viable in the urban context we have created. What we must do then is modify that urban context so that those solutions became viable. That is the role of the architect."
Correa initially studied in India at St. Xavier's College in Bombay from 1946-48. He then came to the United States, where he enrolled in the University of Michigan from 1949 until he earned his B. Arch. degree in 1953. He received an M. Arch degree from MIT in 1955. Correa established a private practice in India in 1958.
Correa received an Honorary Doctor of Architecture degree from the UM in 1980. In 1984, Correa was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He has also been recognized by the Indian Institute of Architects, the American Institute of Architects, and the International Union of Architects, which awarded to Correa in 1985 the Prize for the Improvement in the Quality of Human Settlements.
"Correa is a very good example for our students," says Dean Kelbaugh, by showing them that an illustrious career need not solely involve big projects for major clients. "There is no one comparable in the United States. No one practices with this range, because the situation here, alas, is much different, favors greater specialization."
The work of Correa and others in India will be the focus of a new program being developed by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The "India Program" will offer a graduate studio and related courses for architecture and urban planning students in Ahmedabad, India, hopefully starting next fall.
The India Program will be run in collaboration with Ahmedabad's School of Architecture, where Aseem Inam, UM assistant professor of urban planning, received his architecture degree. The program aims to engage students in an urban-scale project which addresses the realities of architecture, urban design and planning in a city being rapidly transformed by the forces of globalization. Instruction will be cross-cultural, involving Indian and American students and faculty. The studio course will include weekly field trips with an extended field trip to Rajasthan to see ancient Hindu and Islamic archaeological sites, villages, the ecological areas of this region, and its colonial and modern architecture. The new program is especially timely since CAUP has a growing number of international students enrolling in its graduate programs.
In addition to professor Inam, another UM faculty excited by the possibilities of this new program is Hemalata Dandekar, professor of urban planning. Dandekar has been involved in studying Third World shelter for some time. In 1992, she organized an international conference, "Shelter, Women and Development: First and Third World Perspectives," that took a consciously gender-based look at housing needs as expressed in many cultures. Many case studies focusing on the meaning of "shelter" to women from different cultures and with different circumstances were presented, emphasizing the importance that planners and architects understand the special needs of women.
In 1998, the UM again hosted an international meeting organized by Dandekar. "City, Space and Globalization" and an exhibition in the Slusser Gallery designed by architecture faculty Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott brought together architects, urban planners, geographers, historians and sociologists. These events addressed topics ranging from transportation to historic preservation, urban housing issues and city growth patterns.
Correa would almost certainly agree with the need to do the kind of analyses outlined by scholars at the "City, Space and Globalization" conference and exhibition, as this excerpt from one of his essays suggests. "We live in countries of great cultural heritage, countries that wear their past as easily as a woman drapes her sari," wrote Correa. "But in understanding and using this past, let us never forget the actual living conditions of many of the people of Asia and their desperate struggle to shape a better future. At its most vital, architecture is an agent of change; to invent tomorrow: that is the finest function."
February, 1999