The first major UK retrospective of this living legend, the exhibition will celebrate the work of renowned Indian architect Charles Correa, is curated by Dr Irena Murray and designed by David Adjaye; it runs from 14 May until 4 September. The exhibition will accompanied by an ‘Out of India’ series of events, talks and screenings.
Educated in the USA, Correa has played a defining role in the architecture and urbanism of post-war India, combining a Corbusian modernism with a deep respect for and understanding of traditional life of people, place and climate in India. Concentrating on the living patterns of the communities he works in, in more recent years he has become known for designing with poverty in mind, in terms of low cost shelter and urban issues facing some of the world’s most overcrowded areas.
The exhibition features Correa’s designs for housing and cities, looking closely at climate change, affordable housing and his projects to improve cityscapes, including his urban masterplan for Navi Mumbai (New Bombay), a satellite city development whose visionary solutions have been plagued by political corruption and short-sightedness over the years.
According to curator Dr. Irena Murray, Correa exhibits a ‘deep understanding of the implications of climate, demographics, transport and community life has a universal quality and has helped structure the thematic arrangement of the exhibition.’
Designing some of the most outstanding and important buildings in the subcontinent, in terms of its contemporary architectural history – as well as significant works in North America and Europe – Correa has received many of the world’s most important architecture awards including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (1984), Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1988) and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale (1994).
Exhibition designer David Adjaye, who profiled Correa on a BBC Radio 3 program several years ago, comments that Correa’s work is ‘the physical manifestation of the idea of Indian nationhood, modernity and progress’. Adjaye goes on to say that Correa is someone who has the capacity to give physical form to concepts like "culture or "society" which gives great importance to his work beyond that of ‘design’. His exhibition design will reflect the material and tectonic language deployed in much of Correa’s work.
Born in 1930 and sill practicing in 2013, Correa’s gift of his archive includes over 6000 drawings and photographs to the RIBA Library. The archive also consists of plans, photographs, models and films which reflect on his projects. Featuring in the exhibition will be a number of well known works including Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum, India; the MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Centre, USA; the InterUniversity Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India and the Champalimaud Centre for the Study of the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Out of India series of talks and events will include a lecture by Charles Correa on May 15th; a conversation on art, architecture and metaphor with David Adjaye on June 11th and a special ‘Last Tuesday’ on Mumbai on June 25th.
Charles Correa: India’s Greatest Architect
14 May – 4 September 2013, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, W1
Free admission.
www.architecture.com
