Impact of critical regionalism in Indian Architecture

The first impression of a country’s culture and traditions is created from its people and architecture: India is a country having vast history resulting in great diversity and plurality in its cultures and traditions. India’s core is its spirituality and related ancient myths, making it possible for various schools of thought to originate and co-exist simultaneously. After rampant destruction happened in world wars, Indian architecture over thousands of years of existence is a sequential progression with many interventions that served as modifiers. Hence architecture in every era in Indian historyis amanifestation of its time and yet is embedded in its past. The concept of modernism developed in 1920’s, was an era where it was difficult to grasp Indian architecture, as it was used with numerous aesthetic developments, following the spirit of the day. Starting with the efforts made by the European, through “modern architecture” as are bellious and pioneering force started to make cautious headway in India in the early 1930’s. Meanwhile realizing that our ancient past cannot be ignored in architecture since “ancient past is our living present”, hence architects like Raj Rewal, B.V. Doshi, Le Corbusier, Laurie baker and others attempted to merge modern architecture with fundamental credentials of Indianness bringing about a “modern Indian” architecture.