Ar. Charles Correa’s built projects- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Kanchanjunga Apartments, Visvesvaraya Towers
Ar. Charles Correa- the person who brought about reforms in social architecture during his career, the person who was one of the frontmen in shaping the contemporary modern style of architecture in India. His works speak the ‘human’ language, like poetry, imbibed with metaphors and intelligence. Here’s a discourse about his three famous works of brutalism,
1. Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad (1959–66)
2. Kanchanjunga Apartments, Mumbai (1970–83)
3. Visvesvaraya Centre, Bangalore (1974–80)
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, situated in the heart of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was designed by Ar. Charles Correa and Mahendra Raj in 1965. It houses 54,000 seats and is seated beside the gently flowing Sabarmati River. It was the first stadium in India that used folded plate cantilever framed structure in its design. The pillar-less design was imitated in a handmade model then. The stadium was supported by a humongous cantilevered roof that spanned 20 meters. The folded plate element receded stormwater and continued into the seating area. As seen from the sections, the horizontal elements of the stadium reveal the use of folded plates, an example of repetition in design. The stadium, surrounded by facilities like the sports club and tennis club amalgamated into an iconic sports complex, the biggest then in India, was easily accessible from the city’s nodes. The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium was demolished in 2015 and was redesigned to make the 2nd biggest stadium in the world, integrating newer technology and increasing the stadium capacity to 1.3 lakhs. Charles Correa’s integration of modern techniques into his structures in India during his career was the notable takeaway from his projects.
The next project of his, Kanchanjunga Apartments- a talk of interest for every other architect/ architecture student, is a head-turner landmark at a prime location in Mumbai. Kanchanjunga Apartments is a high-rise tower with a height of 84m consisting of 32 apartments. The building is designed in accordance with Mumbai’s climate, along the east-west orientation, which allows the apartments to experience a pleasant micro-climate created inside the living spaces. Unlike the typical high-rise towers, Kanchanjunga stands out with its square plan, brutalist imagery, the open vertical gardens. The square voids scooped from the structure form the 6m cantilevered balconies. A section through the structure is enough to make one understand the working of these apartments. The apertures of this building are purposefully designed to be smaller, unlike other apartments, with a detail to welcome in cold air and induce cross ventilation throughout the living areas. Mezzanine floors are an interesting feature of these apartments; the levels inside the apartments create privacy between the living spaces and balconies. The core of this building, which contains the service area, was built by slip construction method; it was the first time to use the construction method in India. Unlike the plain grey appearance of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium, Kanchanjunga Apartments was splashed with bold yellow and red colors alongside grey, which strikes a resemblance with some of Le Corbusier’s brutalism works. The building is a self-sustaining model encompassing passive ventilation techniques, making it sustainable to the environment and in the long run.
The next structure to be described in this text is the Visvesvaraya Towers, built in Bangalore’s commercial context. As new commercial structures with seamless curtain walls, solar panels, and external sustainability elements were growing in Silicon Valley, Correa felt the need to design a self-sufficient building that would stand out in the long run. His main principle of creating buildings with passive ventilation strategies stood firm throughout his career. He was well aware of the impacts structures made on the environment. Small windows, large courtyards, open balconies, and terrace spaces made a stark appearance in his works. His Visvesvaraya Towers, too, reflect vivid resemblances to Corbusier’s works. His design stands out in the commercial monolithic picture of cities.
Correa was a man of principles; he weaved his designs with site context like embroidery, respected the climates of areas, adopted specific traditional techniques, and made an effort to introduce modern technologies. He was an architect, an artist, and a visual poet too. His storytelling was exquisite and detail-oriented. He was a man who thought about the users, communities, and people keenly. He designed structures to make users feel enthralling experiences through his work, which spoke to them; the walls, textures, voids, courtyards, windows, and everything in the building whisper records into the users’ minds, opening doors to the thoughts he went through while planning his works.
