Balkrishna Doshi

Dr. Balkrishna Doshi is foremost among the modern Indian architects. An urban planner and educator for the past 70 years, Dr. Doshi is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects. After initial studies at the JJ School of Architecture, Bombay, Doshi worked for four years with Le Corbusier in Paris as Senior Designer (1951–1954) and four years in India to supervise his projects in Ahmedabad. Doshi’s office Vastu-Shilpa (Environmental Design) was established in 1955. Doshi has to his credit outstanding projects ranging from dozens of townships and several educational campuses, including those for CEPT University, Ahmedabad, NIFT, New Delhi, and IIM Bangalore.

Apart from his international fame as an architect, Doshi is equally known as an educator and institution builder. He has been the first Founder–Director of School of Architecture (1962–72) and School of Planning (1972–79), Ahmedabad, which are regarded as the pioneer and fountainhead of modern architectural and planning education in India. 

In 2018, Doshi was selected as the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, internationally known as architecture’s highest honour. The Jury Citation states, in part, that Doshi “constantly demonstrates that all good architecture and urban planning must not only unite purpose and structure but must…go beyond the functional to connect with the human spirit through poetic and philosophical underpinnings.”