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The Pritzker is a great award. Unimaginable. It’s the first time in India—that’s another story. But it is also the recognition of saying that these kinds of buildings are really wonderful, they are globally recognizable buildings. The philosophy of creating something for the have-nots, I think is one of the unique things that can happen. — CityLab
CityLab reporter Ashish Malhotra sits down with recent Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi to chat about winning the Pritzker, Ahmedabad, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn as mentors, and open access to architectural education: "So I always wrote, in the [CEPT] campus, my whole idea was that an... View full entry
If you're not too familiar with the works of 2018 Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi, the 90-year-old architect, urban planner, and educator has been a major influence in shaping modern architecture and urban living in his native India. Throughout his 70-year career, he has built public... View full entry
Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project has received more vague government approval for its equally vague plans to build an underground hyperloop between New York and Washington, DC. Last week, Washington, DC’s Department of Transportation issued a preliminary permit to Musk’s Boring Company to start digging at an abandoned lot in the northeast section of the city, according to The Washington Post. — The Verge
The extend of the building permit for Musk's The Boring Company is still vague though and currently limited to an empty parking lot at 53 New York Avenue NE next to a Mc Donald's. As the Washington Post reports: "The District’s Department of Transportation is figuring out what other permits the... View full entry
Soon after the news, an Indian architect posted an image of [Foster's] design juxtaposed next to a stainless-steel idli maker—the kind used to steam idlis for breakfast in countless households across southern India—on an architecture-focused Facebook group. While some made fun of the resemblance—”How on earth will they cook in this?”—others praised the design for not being derivative of colonial-era architecture. — Quartz
Foster + Partners was invited to design the state assembly building in Amaravati, the new capital of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh. Since it was released, Foster's proposed design has drawn mixed reactions from the public. Some people compared the building's spiked design to an idli maker... View full entry
Global sportswear giant Puma was accused today of irreversibly damaging 17th-century architecture in Delhi's historic quarter as part of an advertising stunt to promote a new line of shoes. — NDTV
For their latest shoe ad dubbed "Suede Gully," Puma spraypainted large, colorful murals over several buildings in Old Delhi, a centuries-old quarter and heritage area. The stunt has conservationists outraged, claiming that the graffiti has caused permanent damage to the carved sandstone... View full entry
Times are tough for India’s monument to love. Air pollution is turning its marble surface yellow. Restoration work is obscuring its famous minarets. Tens of millions of tourists still flock to Agra each year, but numbers are reportedly waning.
Critics of the Taj Mahal are also growing increasingly bold. In past months, religious nationalists in the Hindu-majority country have stepped up a campaign to push the four-century-old Mughal monument to the margins of Indian history.
— The Guardian
"Resentment at the fact the country’s most recognisable monument was built by a Muslim emperor has always existed on the fringes of the Hindu right," The Guardian writes. "But those fringes have never been so powerful." View full entry
“The Hall of Nations is a very significant building in the evolution of modern architecture in India. It demonstrated the ability of the profession in 1970 to build a large space frame structure with available resources, which in this case was reinforced cement concrete and skilled hand-labour.”
“It was an iconic building representing an important step in the development of Indian architecture. It should have been conserved on that account,”
— Indian Express
Built to mark the 25th anniversary of India's independence in 1972, Delhi's historic Hall of Nations and Hall of Industries were demolished last week to make way for a new commercial complex. The Delhi High Court's verdict was based on the decision of the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC)... View full entry
Since April 1 a large number of the bars, pubs and liquor shops across India has gone out of business, thanks to a Supreme Court order that the outlets should be at least 500m away from state and national highways...The Aishwarya Bar in North Paravoor, a Kochi suburb has built a 250m-long maze-like walkway to the entrance, theoretically making it more than 500m away from the highway. — India Times
In a move that has even delighted the bureaucrats who initially drafted the rule that no bar could be within 500 meters of a highway, an Indian bar has managed to stay in business by virtue of building a 250 meter long maze that, like the snaking lines at an amusement park, greatly expands the... View full entry
The rapid pace of urbanization in developing countries places increasing levels of stress on cities. As thousands of people move into urban areas each year, the availability of affordable housing emerges as a key challenge. In India, 412 million people live in urban areas. Depending on the source... View full entry
While the architecture in real cities has sometimes become the jumping off point for imaginary structures in cinema (think: the Los Angeles of Blade Runner) the reverse seems to be happening in India, where a filmmaker is being asked to design real structures based on the imagined buildings that... View full entry
With its indoor theme park and helipad, this building might seem more like it would belong in Las Vegas, but this towering Hindu temple is set to become the world's tallest religious skyscraper. [...]
At 700 feet (210 metres), the temple will be taller than India's Taj Mahal, which stands at 239 feet (73m) tall, as well as St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, which measures 422 feet (128.6m).
— Daily Mail
The illustration below shows the greater master plan for Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir. The project website has this description:"The skyscraper temple-cum-heritage project, conceived of by the devotees of ISKCON-Bangalore, will consist of a grand temple of Lord Sri Krishna at its centre. The... View full entry
Up to 12 million people are “urbanising” every year in India, a rate surpassed only by China. It means the country will need a sustained building spree that would see more than 75 million people employed in construction by 2022.
As it races to build 110 million extra homes needed, plus necessary transport infrastructure, by 2025 the size of India’s construction market would reach $1 trillion, the third largest in the world, according to KPMG.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Related on Archinect:Poverty, corruption and crime: how India's 'gully rap' tells story of real lifeIndia on the brink: what's in store for the country's architectural futureWorld's first Slum Museum is coming to MumbaiNew Delhi mandates odd-even car rationing to fight world's worst air pollution View full entry
beneath the surface of the city, a new sound has begun to emerge, one which refuses to airbrush poverty, illiteracy and police brutality. Driven by a similar sense of disenfranchisement that characterised the development of hip-hop in 1970s New York, a new generation of musicians is creating India’s own homegrown rap scene – labelled by some as “gully rap”, slang for gutter or from the streets. — the guardian
“The popular rappers in Bollywood just talk about girls and booze and parties, they are only talking about glamour and trying to sell a fake dream. I wanted to make music that spoke about fighting, and the murders and the violence that were a part of my life growing up – and is the same for... View full entry
In an order that sends a strong message against corruption, the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Union Environment Ministry to demolish 31-storey Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society. [...]
The society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, was converted into a 100-metre-tall building with politicians, bureaucrats and army officers allegedly conspiring to get flats allotted to them in the cooperative society at below-market rates.
— The Times of India
Click here to learn more about the Adarsh Housing Society scam and corruption scandal.Related stories in the Archinect news:Top 13 floors of India's tallest skyscraper were built illegally, High Court saysIndia on the brink: what's in store for the country's architectural futureWorld's first Slum... View full entry
It was less than a century ago that India consolidated itself as a nation, after hundreds of years of foreign domination. Since its independence in 1947, it has worked tirelessly to define its identity; from the political stage to its day-to-day social engagements, India has established itself on... View full entry
