Indian architect, planner, and activist Charles Correa died on June 16 at age 84. The founder of Mumbai-based Charles Correa Associates is most well-known for his role in developing modern architecture in postwar India, and his use of traditional materials in projects all over the world. The Royal Institute of British Architects awarded Correa the 1984 Royal Gold Medal and named him “India’s greatest architect” in 2013. He also received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1988, the Gold Medal by the International Union of Architects in 1990, and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in 1994.
Correa's well-known works include the “Gandhi Smarak Sanghralaya,” a Mahatma Gandhi memorial museum in Ahmedabad, Gujarat; the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal; the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex at his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.; the British Council building in New Delhi; and most recently, Ismaili Centre in Toronto. He was also involved in urban planning and low-income housing in cities all over India. His designs were essential to the development of post-independence modern architecture in India.
