Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has been named the winner of the Royal Gold Medal 2022 by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the medal is one of architecture’s top honours. The honours committee said Doshi has influenced the direction of architecture in India and abroad over a 70-year career that has spawned more than 100 built projects.
“He has influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture,” said RIBA president Simon Allford.
Atira Guest House, Ahmedabad.
Image: Fabien Charuau
“Influenced by his time spent in the office of Le Corbusier, his work nevertheless is that of an original and independent thinker – able to undo, redo and evolve. In the twentieth century, when technology facilitated many architects to build independently of local climate and tradition, Balkrishna remained closely connected with his hinterland: its climate, technologies new and old, and crafts.”
Doshi said it was an honour to receive the award. “The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953 when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal,” he said. “He said to me metaphorically, ‘I wonder how big and heavy this medal will be.’ Today, six decades later I feel truly overwhelmed to be bestowed with the same award as my guru, Le Corbusier – honouring my six decades of practice.”
Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore.
Image: Vastushilpa Foundation, John Panicker
Doshi was born in 1927 in Pune and studied at the Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Bombay (now Mumbai), before working for four years with Le Corbusier as senior designer in Paris and for four more years in India to supervise projects in Ahmedabad. He also worked with Louis Kahn as an associate to build the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and they continued to collaborate for over a decade. Doshi was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2018.
His practice, Vastushilpa, which he founded in 1956 with two architects, is today a multi-disciplinary practice with 60 employees and five partners spanning three generations.
The 2022 Honours Committee, chaired by RIBA president Simon Allford, included last year’s Royal Gold Medal recipient Sir David Adjaye, architect Alison Brooks, architect and academic Kate Cheyne, and cultural historian and museum director Gus Casely-Hayford.
