Architect Balkrishna V Doshi was conferred the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2018 for his formidable contribution to the field of architecture in a career spanning nearly six decades. Featured in this edition of [IN]SIDE is a selection of glimpses of his work – a few iconic projects in Ahmedabad.
“We were sitting on the dusty floor of the cave, looking at the sun rays lighting the words of the tale. The unfolding of the skies of the Gufa revealed a mythology of abstraction. The Gufa is a story told by Doshi. It’s a story of the sea curling up on the ribs of the cave and of flat demons hiding in the ferro-cement woods. Here inside, the light in the undergrowth is bent, slowed down with the weight of the city din, far outside. It’s a tale of the young seeker sitting, meditating in the softness of the dark, the walls of the womb -already dangerously round- curved even more to shelter her small shoulders. There’s no straight line here: the horizon line is coiled like one of Husain’s cobras and to find orientation in this mirage one has to drop all need for orientation. That’s the optical trick of the Gufa: the distortion of the lens unrolls the painter’s canvas⊗ ”
FABIEN CHARUAU is a French photographer based in Mumbai and working in Architecture and Interior space. Over the last ten years, Fabien has contributed to many national and international publications including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, ELLE, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, WSJ Magazine, Vogue India, Le Monde and The Good Life. Fabien has shot for leading architecture firms and takes on private projects.
