Balkrishna Doshi has been named the winner of the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the architecture profession’s most esteemed honor. Known often as B.V. Doshi or simply Doshi, this year’s honoree has served as an architect and lecturer for more than 70 years. He is the first Indian architect to receive the honor.
“Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has continually exhibited the objectives of the Pritzker Architecture Prize to the highest degree. He has been practicing the art of architecture, demonstrating substantial contributions to humanity, for over 60 years,” the jury citation reads. “By granting him the award this year, the Pritzker Prize jury recognizes his exceptional architecture as reflected in over a hundred buildings he has realized, his commitment and his dedication to his country and the communities he has served, his influence as a teacher, and the outstanding example he has set for professionals and students around the world throughout his long career.”
“Doshi constantly demonstrates that all good architecture and urban planning must not only unite purpose and structure but must take into account climate, site, technique, and craft, along with a deep understanding and appreciation of the context in the broadest sense,” the citation continues. “Projects must go beyond the functional to connect with the human spirit through poetic and philosophical underpinnings.”
Doshi began his career in Europe, where he worked alongside Le Corbusier in France, and eventually oversaw the master architect’s projects in India. Doshi later worked with Louis Kahn on the development of the Indian Institute of Management. In 1956, he went on to launch the practice Vastushilpa, which is known today as Vastushilpa Consultants. The Vastushilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design was also launched in 1978 to develop planning and design approaches complementary to the culture of India.
Completed in 1981, the Sangath architecture studio in Ahmedabad, India expresses Doshi’s style with a series of sunken vaults punctuated with gardens, communal spaces, and water features. Doshi’s portfolio of more than 100 projects comprises abundant low-cost housing as well. The Aranya Low Cost Housing development in the Indian city of Indore was completed in 1989, and features a network of residences, courtyards, and internal pathways that accommodate more than 80,000 low- to middle-income individuals. Doshi was later named the 1993-1995 winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Doshi will be formally honored during the 40th Pritzker Prize ceremony in Toronto on May 16.
