PLANE-SITE has released a new video interview with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Balkrishna Doshi, which was produced in the run-up to the 2020 edition of the Time Space Existence biennial exhibition, Doshi reflects on the personal and environmental implications of the home.

Over six decades, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Balkrishna Doshi has created a body of work lauded for its poetics, purpose, and deep appreciation of material context. 

From affordable social housing to public space, his designs are influenced as much by India’s vernacular as they are by his early tutelage under Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn — mentors he describes as his guru and yogi, respectively. 

The architect is one of World Architecture Community's first Honorary Members (since 2007).

Video by PLANE-SITE

In a new video, produced in the run-up to the 2020 edition of the Time Space Existence biennial exhibition, Doshi reflects on the personal and environmental implications of the home. 

For Doshi, a home is a living, sacred space that provides a basis for cooperation and tolerance. And, as he elaborates in the video, a home exists at many scales, from the family household to the planet we share. 

"How can the earth be separate from you?" he asks. "True sustainability is going towards an integral way of life, and an integral way of thinking."

Residence in its original configuration before residents moved in: Housing for Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Ahmedabad, 1973. Image © Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad

The Time Space Existence video series has already featured both prominent and emerging architects, including Denise Scott-Brown, Peter Eisenman, WOHA Architects, Curt Fentress, Toshiko Mori, Daniel Libeskind, Tatiana Bilbao, Arata Isozaki and many others. 

Aranya Low Cost Housing Indore, India, 1989. Image courtesy of VSF

The series will be exhibited at the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens on May 21-22, 2020. This interview series has been made possible with the support of the European Cultural Centre.

One of the spacious, light-flooded corridors at IIM: Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, 1977-92. Image © Courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad, photo: Vinay Panjwani – India

Exterior view of the underground art space that Doshi created with M.F. Husain: Amdavad Ni Gufa, Ahmedabad, 1994. Image © Iwan Baan 2018

Image courtesy of PLANE-SITE

Image courtesy of PLANE-SITE

Image courtesy of PLANE-SITE

Top image: Interior view of the underground art space: Amdavad Ni Gufa, Ahmedabad, 1994 © Iwan Baan 2018

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