'Architecture should celebrate life’

How do you see the Pritzker Prize, and being the

first Indian

to receive it?
• This award signals a lot of things for architects, planners and institutions. The award speaks volumes of what should be our priorities vis-avis improving quality of life, which is optimum use of energy and time. Planners should pause and see whether their works benefit families across all strata, children, their neighbourhoods and community, whether we have created opportunities for them to frequently gather and deliberate or rejoice so that the community feels that their time has been more meaningful, diverse and memorable.

You worked with

Le Corbusier

for seven years. What quality of his influenced you?
• He taught me to value freedom. He taught me to make choices. He insisted that one should make exceptions and break rules that architecture prescribed. Such was my guru, that he could be formal and informal, caring and detached, all in a single moment. In his works, he was deeply concerned about the condition of man. This has influenced all my works, the Aranya low income housing in Indore, IFFCO housing Kalol, ATIRA housing, Bimanagar housing, the Bhadra Plaza, Cept University, all depict an architecture that is personal, how people live and connect, and are laced with sights, sounds, and community’s memories.

You worked with

Louis Kahn

as well? How were they different?
• Both were opposite ends. I worked with Kahn in 1962. Louis Kahn loved the sun, moon, wind and the shadows which would hit the parallel wall revealing its texture. He considered Corbu as his guru. Kahn never had anything except boiled potatoes and fish. Corbu loved to savour all foods, he was a mystic.

When our cities are turning into an urban jungle, how should architecture be?
• Architects, like doctors, should find humane ways of making habitations efficient. The slums, crowd, chaotic traffic have nearly ended that graceful ways of living. Today, architects talk more of marketability rather than grace. Today in our cities, people have no time to stop because planners have not given them spaces for pause and relaxation — public spaces, parks and gardens. Where are the big shady trees where one can go, sit and ponder! While designing our cities, we have almost forgotten how we have squandered away our resources. This should change.