Inside the master’s mind

Last year on June 16, revered architect Charles Correa breathed his last in the city that he helped build. In less than a year, the Charles Correa Foundation is offering a treat to those who love his work and would like to take a glimpse inside the great mind’s creative process.

Buildings as Ideas: The Un-built works of Charles Correa is an exhibition where a collection of his un-built work: competition entries, commissions and public projects will be showcased for the first time.

“The intent of this exhibition is to present the body of his un-built projects in a way that illuminates important continuities in his thought, bringing into focus key lineages, while keeping his prolific career in the background of the narrative,” says Nondita Correa Mehrotra, Correa’s daughter.

“Very often the un-built projects have much clearer ideas and a certain purity to them, since they haven’t got the pressure of a client’s needs, budget constraints or some problem at the site — buildings get pushed and pulled in different directions,” she explains.

There are about 80 projects that were left in the lurch and the Foundation under Nondita’s supervision has put a timeline to his career.

“We’ve constructed a timeline, which was never done before. So all the things that he undertook from the time he started, 1958 to last year when he passed away in 2015,” says Nondita.

“There will also be a few films made on and by Mr Correa which one can see at the exhibition,” she adds. However, the exhibition will highlight his un-built projects primarily with drawings and sketches. When you cross reference these to one of his built projects like Kanchanjunga Apartments in Bombay, or Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal and when you put it all together, you’ll see a different perspective on six decades worth of work,” Nondita points out. Talking more about the legacy and posterity of her father’s work, Nondita adds, “We called the exhibition Building As Ideas because I think it is important to know and Mr Correa also felt very strongly about his buildings’ need to convey ideas. These buildings are quite simple as diagrams but one mustn’t lose the idea. For example his always believed that buildings ought to be attuned to the climate.”

When I see all of these un-built work, I feel quite upset and frustrated that Mr Correa put so much efforts into these urban projects built but none of them materialised and I think it is very frustrating in that sense because I don’t think our politicians are paying any attention really.”

The opening of the exhibition will be followed by a lecture by historian and curator Dr Irena Murray on Correa’s work.

On March 15, 5.30 pm,at Max Mueller Bhavan K. Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda