The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has been awarded the Royal Gold Medal 2021. The awards began in 1848 and are approved and presented annually by the Queen of the United Kingdom. As one of the highest honorary awards in the world of architecture, it represents recognition of an architect's lifelong work and is "awarded only to individuals or groups of individuals who have contributed directly or indirectly to the development of architecture".
Born in 1927 in Pune, India, the highly acclaimed Bakrisina Dorsey worked for Le Corbusier in France and later with Louis Kang. Over the past 60 years, Dorsey has built more than 100 projects, pioneering the blend of modernism and vernacularism to reflect and promote local culture, context and craftsmanship in design, which has had a vital impact on Indian architecture.
As one of India's most famous architects today and a 2018 Pritzker Prize winner, Doshi has influenced the direction of architecture in India and its neighbors through his practice and teaching. His work covers a wide range of project types of scales, including administrative and cultural buildings, educational buildings, affordable housing development and residential buildings. Representative works include: Shreyas Comprehensive School Campus (1958-63), Ahmedabad School of Architecture (1966), Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (1977-1992), Aranya Affordable Housing (1989), etc.
Dorsey's architecture is both poetic and functional. From the changing rhythms of the weather to the chimes of temples and temples, these childhood memories inspire his designs. He describes architecture as an extension of the body, and his ability to focus on its functionality while considering climate, landscape and urbanization is particularly evident in the selection of materials, the handling of overlapping spaces, and the use of elements of nature and harmony.
Over the years, Dorsey's architecture has neither gone with the flow nor pursued pompous and eye-catching design, and his architecture has been carefully polished to contain a vision and sense of responsibility for contributing to the country. Dorsey has a very clear understanding of the context of the location of the building, and his design plan considers social, economic, environmental and other aspects, so as to create a sustainable building.
At the age of 94, he influenced generations of architects through pleasant, purposeful architecture. Although influenced by his experiences at Le Corbusier, his work remains an original, independent intellectual achievement—capable of restoration, redo, and evolution. In the twentieth century, advances in technology allowed many architects to build out of the local climate and traditions, and Balkrishna remained in close contact with the site where he was located: its climate, old and new techniques and craftsmanship. Dorsey's outstanding contributions to architecture, architectural craftsmanship, and urban design practices made him a well-deserved recipient. —RIBA reviewer Simon Allford
"I am both pleasantly surprised and deeply humbled to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Queen of the United Kingdom. What an honor! The news of this award reminds me of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953, when he had just received the news of winning the Royal Gold Medal. I distinctly remember his excitement at receiving this honor from Her Majesty the Queen. He said to me figuratively, 'I want to know how big and how heavy this medal is.' Today, 60 years later, I really feel overwhelmed to receive the same award as my master Le Corbusier – in recognition of my 6 years of practice. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my wife, my daughter, and most importantly, my team and the collaborators at Sangath Studios. --Dorsey
The Royal Gold Award recognises Dorsey's "advocacy of an architectural language of material economy, elegance and pleasantness" and his dedication to promoting local technology and craftsmanship. This honor is also a recognition of Dorsey's influence as an architectural practitioner and educator, affirming the relevance of his design ideas to contemporary architecture. The architect will be awarded this prestigious honor at a special ceremony in 2022.
List of past RIBA Royal Gold Award winners:
1980 James Stirling, UK
1981 Philip Dawson, UK
1982 Berthold Lubertkin, Russia
1983 Norman Foster, UK
1984 Charles Correa, India
1985 Richard Rogers, UK
1986 Shin Kazaki, Japan
1987 Ralph Erskine, Uk
1988 Richard Mailer, USA
1989 Renzo Piano, Italy
1990 Aldo van Ike, Netherlands
1991 Colin Stansfield Smith, UK
1992 Peter Rice, Ireland
1993 Giancarlo de Caro, Italy
1994 Michael Hopkins & Patricia Hopkins, UK
1995 Colin Rowe, UK
1996 Harry Sedler, Australia
1997 Tadao Ando, Japan
1998 Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil
1999 City of Barcelona, Spain
2000 Frank Gehry, USA
2001 Jean Nouvel, France
2002 Archigram, UK
2003 Raphael Moneo, Spain
2004 Rem Koolhaas, Netherlands
2005 Frye Otto, Germany
2006 Toyo Ito, Japan
2007 Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Mellon, Switzerland
2008 Edward Cullinan, UK
2009 Alvaro Siza, Portugal
2010 I.M. Pei, China/USA
2011 David Chipfield, UK
2012 Hermann Heitzberger, Netherlands
2013 Peter Zumto, Switzerland
2014 Joseph Rickwhite, UK
2015 Sheila O'Donnell and John Tommy, Ireland
2016 Zaha Hadid, UK
2017 Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Brazil
2018 Neff Brown, UK
2019 Nicholas Graemshaw, UK
2020 Grafton Architects, Ireland
2021 David Adejayeh, UK
2022 Bakrisina Doshi, India