5.NOTES Charles Correa
5.NOTES Charles Correa
5.NOTES Charles Correa
09AT5DCCOA
CONTENT COMPILED BY
AR. SAHANA. S
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, B.M.S.C.A.)
CHARLES CORREA - LIFE AND WORKS
•Portfolio
•In a career that spans the design of great buildings and cities to plans for effective, affordable housing, few
can match Charles Correa's accomplishments.
•Correa’s many accomplishments include:
•His first important commission was the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad, (1958-63).
•The Jawahar Kala Kendra Museum- a museum and art center in Jaipur. The contemporary building. is based
on ancient ideas of the cosmos.
Gandhi Smarak Jawahar Kala Kendra National Crafts Museum at Bhopal State Assembly
Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad museum, Jaipur Pragati Maidan New Delhi Building
CHARLES CORREA - WORKS
In his Belapur Housing Complex, Navi Mumbai,1983-86, housing for low income groups uses open-to-sky
space as a trade-off against the cost of producing equivalent covered space, for under Indian conditions
courtyards have a usability coefficient of about half that of a room and verandhas about three quarters.
Cluster of 7 houses
Clusters of 3 x 3 x 7
houses
Cluster of 3 x 7
houses Site plan
CHARLES CORREA - DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES
•By using long tube houses, it was possible to get required density
as well as much larger living spaces for each family.
•Based on the model of a long narrow dwelling, clustered about an internal atrium, lit from above yet
simultaneously screened from the sun, the Tube House served as the basic idea behind a number of villas that
Correa designed on a similar theme, most notably the Parekh and Ramkrishna Houses built in Ahmedabad
between 1962 and 1968.
•This Ramakrishna house plan for one of Ahmedabad’s mill-owners is generated by a series of parallel load
bearing-walls, punctuated by interior courts top-lit by cannon, culminating in the main living areas.
•The Ramakrishna house was greatly influenced by the Hindustan –Lever pavilion, a random folded – plate
RCC structure for the International Trade fair at Delhi in 1961 designed by Correa himself.
• The house is placed at the northern end of the site, so as to maximize the magnitude of the garden.
•Internally, the plan is structured by two parallel staircases, the main stairs and the service stairs, rising in
opposite directions to the upper level.
•Family bedrooms are on upper level spanning across the main façade overlooking the garden.
Plan
Section
Parallel walls lit by
overhead ‘cannon’
Model Pivoting
front
door
Hindustan –
Lever pavilion
CHARLES CORREA- RAMAKRISHNA HOUSE, AHMEDABAD
South facade
North facade
CHARLES CORREA- MRF HEADQUARTERS, CHENNAI
• The project of designing its main headquarters was given to Charles Correa & Associates.
• The MRF Building is a large horizontal structure with sweeping cantilevers and an internal atrium.
• It is located on a bend of Greames Road and its façade gently follows the street curve, creating a series of terraced
gardens.
• It is comparable to the waves on the seashore of the Marina along Chennai’s waterfront.
• As such, unlike many Modernist buildings, it helps delineate the street.
• Its scale is also surprisingly compatible with its more traditional neighbors and comes from its horizontal massing.
• A major feature of the building is its curving, slatted pergola standing on massive pillars
• Its tower-like monumentality is generated through a single free-standing column rising to support the large pergola
that floats above the terraces.
• Within the building, the various levels of the offices open out onto a central atrium linked through a casual pattern
of connecting stairs. It creates a focus for the building.
• On the ground floor are the common areas; each of the floors above is allotted to one of the company’s major
departments.
• The offices of the senior personnel are along the façade while the general staff are located in an open arrangement
behind.
• At the roof terrace level, one emerges on to a large garden, with trees and buildings all around.
• Within the building, the various levels of the offices open out onto a central atrium, linked through a casual pattern
of connecting stairs, creating a focus for the building.
• A wonderfully casual way to walk from one department to another, or to exit and go home at the end of the
working day.
CHARLES CORREA- MRF HEADQUARTERS, CHENNAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
Façade:
• Facade has a dramatic effect due to
outer double height terraces and
themes of color palette add the drama
in the aesthetics. The interlocking form
and colors reveals the complex spatial
organization of the livable spaces of
the tower.
• Great deal of transparency has been
achieved by the use of large opening
and deep garden verandahs,
suspended in the air on every floor.
• Whole structure is made of reinforced
concrete with 6.3m cantilevered open
terrace.
• The central core houses lifts and
other services were constructed ahead
of the main structure by slip method
of construction.
• Its concrete construction and large
areas of white panels, bears a strong
resemblance to modern apartment
buildings in the West.
• The garden terraces of Kanchanjunga
Apartments are actually a modern
N interpretation of a feature of the
traditional Indian bungalow: the
verandah.
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI