A Place in the Shade: The New Landscape and Other Essays

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Indian cities are mechanisms for social engineering—more powerful than anything we have seen before. They will transform this country. A Place in the Shade explores architectural and urban issues in India, from the house as a machine for dealing with our often hostile climate, to the metaphysical role of architecture as a Model of the Cosmos. This reflective, provocative and consistently readable collection of essays argues that our habitat must respond to the overriding parameters of climate, culture and financial resources and that our physical environment should accommodate notions of inclusion and diversity, and that priceless quality of synergy which characterizes a city. Charles Correa identifies the defining issues of the urbanization process that is so rapidly transforming India. He writes, 'You cannot look at cities without wandering into architecture on the one hand and politics on the other.' Tragically, over the last few decades, urban real estate has become the primary source of financing for political parties and the politicians who run them. But our towns and cities are assets too precious to be squandered in this manner. Like the wheat fields of Punjab and the coal fields of Bihar, cities are a crucial part of our national wealth. Their success—or their failure—will determine our future.

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Charles Correa is a major figure in contemporary architecture around the world. With his extraordinary and inspiring designs, he has played a pivotal role in the creation of an architecture for post-Independence India —from the serene Mahatma Gandhi Museum at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to the unique Kanchanjunga apartment tower in Mumbai, the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, and most recently, MIT's elegant Brain and Cognitive Sciences Centre in Boston. A pioneer in addressing issues of habitat and urbanization in the developing world, he has designed townships in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and other Indian cities. In 1970 he was appointed Chief Architect for Navi Mumbai and in 1985 Chairman of the first National Commission on Urbanization. From 2005 to 2008 he was Chairman of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission. He has taught at several universities in India and abroad, including Cambridge (UK), Berkeley and Harvard. He is currently the Bemis Professor at MIT. Correa has a wide spectrum of interests,including film-making, toy trains and music. He has received the highest honours of his profession, including the RIBA Gold Medal (1984), the UIA Gold Medal (1990), the Praemium Imperiale of Japan (1994) and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1998). He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2007.