Balkrishna Doshi: First Indian to Receive Architecture's Highest Honor

Chidanand Rajghattal reports: "Balkrishna Doshi, the legendary Indian architect who designs not just buildings but institutions, is being honored with the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Nobel equivalent for the field, it was announced on Wednesday."

Here's how Rajghattal summarizes Doshi's career:

An alumnus of the JJ School of Architecture in Mumbai, Doshi worked with the legendary Le Corbusier in Paris in the 1950 before returning to India to supervise the architect's projects. He established his studio Vastu-Shilpa (environmental design) in 1955 and worked with Louis Kahn and Anant Raje in designing the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He would go on to design IIMs in Bangalore and Lucknow, the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Tagore Memorial Hall, the Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad, among other fine campuses and buildings across India, besides many low-cost housing projects.

Rajghattal also spends more time describing the many institutions that flourished under Doshi's leadership.

Aranya Low Cost Housing (photo courtesy of VSF)

For more on the news of this historic acknowledgement, here's a list of additional resources:

• 2018 Laureate Page: Balkrishna Doshi (The Pritzker Architecture Prize)
• Balkrishna Doshi Wins 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize (Architectural Record)
• In another surprise choice, Pritzker Prize honors 90-year-old Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi (Los Angeles Times)
• In a first for Pritzker Prize, architecture award goes to an Indian architect: Balkrishna Doshi (Chicago Tribune)
• 2018 Pritzker Prize Awarded To Indian Architect Balkrishna Doshi (FastCo.Design)

News of past winners:

• Architecture's Top Prize Goes to a Relatively Unknown Trio From Spain
• Alejandro Aravena: First Chilean Architect to Take Home the Pritzker Prize
• German Architect Frei Otto Awarded the 2015 Pritzker Architecture Prize
• Rewarded for Doing Good: Shigeru Ban Wins Pritzker Prize