ACHYUT P KANVINDE

•He was born in 1916 in a small village named achare on the Konkan Coast of Maharashtra.•He is considered as one of forefathers of modern Indian Arhitecture.•He entered JJ School of Art (University of Mumbai) in 1935 to study Architecture under Claude Batley.•He later studied design at Harvard in 1945 and was influenced by the work of Walter Gropius.

INTRODUCTION

WORKS•Physical Research laboratory,Ahmedabad •Ahmedabad textiles Industries research association•Harivallabdas house,Ahmedabad•Gandhi krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bangalore•PK Kelkar library, IIT Kanpur,•Dudhsagar diary,Mehsna ( national diary development board)•Institute of rural management, Anand•Nehru Science Center, Mumbai•National Science Center, New Delhi•National insurance academy, Pune•ISKCON temple, East of Kailash, Delhi

Dudhsagar Diary, Mehsana (1973)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS

•Awarded Padma Shree in1976•President IIA•Co-Authored book “Campus Design in India”•IIA’s Babu Rao Mhatre Gold Medal for life time achievement in 1985 •Great Masters Award from JK Industries Ltd. in 1993. 

National Insurance Academy, Pune (1992)

Institute of Rural Management, Anand (1979)

The institutional buildings he designed in the first five years, are conservative. All having:•similar facades. •Horizontal, clean volumes,  •aesthetically pleasing proportions of fenestration. •Ribbon windows. •A grid frame structure- unexposed, and plastered exterior finish. 

Followed by an experimental phase- in the course of the next five years he designed:  (i) Harivallabdas House (ii) IIT Kanpur  (iii) Doodhsagar Dairy 

PK Kelkar Library, IIT KANPUR (1966)

NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER, NEW DELHI (1991)

PLAN

•Situated in the vicinity of old monuments of Delhi providing a new fabric to the city and at the same time feeling  of the ancient building.

•A set of vertical volumes that rise gradually- this buildings is visually appealing, and unimposing. It has a large grand flight of steps on its entrance.

• The skylights- which are the dominant highlight of the design are a common repeating element in many of his works- such as the Doodhsagar Dairy, and the Nehru Science Center, Mumbai. 

•The building seems to have a simple & efficiently designed structural system, and a functional approach in its layout

•The building accommodates a complex of workshops, library, lecture halls and observatory.

•  Site Location- Bhairon Road, Adjacent Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

•Site Area-  7000m2

•  Materials Used: RCC frame, brick infill plastered in a fine stone grit finish.

HARIVALLABDAS HOUSEAHEMDABAD (1964)

•Distinct living modules are arranged under a sweeping parasol and sensitively sited in a garden setting. We can clearly understand the internal functions of this building by observing it from the outside- as they appear as separate masses. These are arranged in ways that are functional from inside and elegant from outside.

•Site Location- Ahemdabad.

•Site Area-  1200m2 

•Materials Used: RCC frame, brick and grit finish.

•Modern for its time- built in 1964

•Kanvinde’s career spanned a period of about 50 years.

•It was a prolific career in that the scale and number of projects he worked on from the beginning are incomparable. 

•There are infinite number of concerns, influences and traditions that have shaped Kanvinde’s works.

• A much deep-probing understanding of his life and his work responsive to his larger interests and concerns seems important to clarify the important phase of the political and social process in the creation in the new country which he shaped and guided.

•Humility and reticence are acclaimed hallmarks of his persona, which is probably one of the reasons his works have not been as widely known as they could have been. 

CONCLUSION