Charles Correa: Citizen Charles by Mustansir Dalvi

This is the first biography to be written on Charles Correa (1930 – 2015), architect, urban planner, filmmaker, and true-blue ‘Bombaywallah’. He was a man of many talents and one of the most globally honoured architects of his time. Today, Correa’s designs remain with us as exemplars of distinctly Indian modernism, which used contemporary international technologies to create buildings uniquely adapted to India’s climate and customs. Correa’s life-work is significant because of his zeal to work for urban equity in post-independence India, to uphold the claims of every Indian citizen to decent, egalitarian housing, and access to public space.

This monograph explores the myriad Indian and international influences that shaped Correa’s life. It follows him through his childhood days in Art Deco Bombay, his youthful exposure to the towering figures of International Modernism as a student and his commissions in newly-Independent India. It goes on to study the manner in which he developed a contemporary yet distinctively Indian architecture. It chronicles his enduring successes as an architect, as well as the bitter disappointments he faced in his lifelong advocacy for an egalitarian and uniquely Indian urbanism.