Abstract
Venugopal Maddipati. 2021. Gandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Architecture. Oxon: Routledge. xxi + 202 pp. Notes, figures, bibliography, index. ₹995 (hardback—ISBN: 9780367723330)
Postcolonial architectural histories have engaged with the ambitious nation-building project envisioned by Nehru, including large-scale infrastructural, architectural and urban projects, the role of foreign experts such as Swiss architect Le Corbusier and governmental bodies such as the Public Works Department. These accounts define the process as Indian Modernism—a commitment and celebration of technological progress in an otherwise third-world context. Future architectural histories of the contemporary era will likely elaborate on the rhetoric of a New India, eager to present itself as Vishwaguru, even if lacking its predecessors’ intent, taste and finesse. Within the span of post-independence visions and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled visualisations, many ideas have lost their currency, including the Gandhian one, at least in the popular imagination.
Venugopal Maddipati, through his book, presents an architectural history of India that uncovers a Gandhian possibility in the architecture of limits, and finitude as postcolonial architecture. Trained and exposed to architecture at one of India’s premier institutions, and an iconic institution of Delhi—the School of Planning and Architecture—Maddipati is an architectural historian who honed his craft in the robust art history ecosystem of Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Maddipati’s work, Gandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Architecture, is divided into six chapters, excluding the foundational section—Introduction. The introduction and subsequent chapters present a series of events, personalities, arguments and case studies constructing the central theme. They do not necessarily stress the idea of ‘history’, nor are they temporally compartmentalised. In addition to Gandhi, whose philosophy of ‘finitude’ (p. 96) is presented as the protagonist, the book also covers the contributions of several well-known personalities and institutions to the discourse on low-cost housing in India.
The book’s preface raises the question of whether Gandhi had a clear vision of architectural housing for India and, if so, how his ideas of limit and finitude serve present-day needs. The introduction sketches how the Gandhian idea corresponds to established notions of writing history. Over the course of the book, the author elaborates on conceptual and methodological aspects and reflects on the central idea of ‘finitude’ through the lenses of several thinker-practitioners such as E. F. Schumacher, Ivan Illich, Charles Correa, Laurie Baker, Patrick Geddes and John F. C. Turner.
The first chapter, ‘An Architecture of Finitude’, elaborates on the making of Bapu Kuti (Gandhi’s hut) and other buildings in the Sevagram complex, near Wardha in Central India, through a defined resource limit of ₹100 imposed by Gandhi on his close associate Madeleine Slade—popularly known as Mirabehn—who was overseeing the process at the time. This is the first elaboration of the architecture of finitude, based on Gandhi’s belief in Varnashramadharma.
The second chapter, ‘The Present Endures’, moves from a discussion of housing with respect to Gandhi’s personal and experiential beliefs to the Indian state’s post-independence thinking on housing—wherein it became a numbers game, corresponding with a 1954 low-cost housing exhibition in New Delhi illustrating various visions and typologies as ‘emergent regimes of reality’ (p. 92) by individuals and agencies from India, such as the Central Brick Research Institute (CBRI).
The third chapter, ‘Urbanizing Finitude’, introduces the Indian architect Charles Correa, renowned for his architectural design of Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad. Maddipati presents modernist Correa ‘as a finite, curious architect stuck on this side of the perishing point’ (p. 102). Correa’s exploration of low-rise medium-density climatologically and energy-sensitive housing (p. 99) in his writings, and architectural practice, illustrated in the Artist Village in Belapur (in Navi Mumbai), where he attempted to provide urban equity through the incremental housing units (p. 114) is presented here as a critical case study.
The fourth chapter, ‘The House That Necessity Built’ underlines the philosophical differences between the house and home in its ethos, materiality and making. It illustrates the relevance of bottom-up construction methods in housing by the Centre of Science for Villages (CSV), established by technologist turned Gandhian, Devendra Kumar. The narrative explains several examples of frugal construction based on locally available materials. The chapter underlines how institutions such as the CSV and CBRI have extensively researched and contributed to components and methods—often do-it-yourself and customisable—towards the facilitation of low-cost housing in India.
In the fifth chapter, ‘Regionalizing Limits’, Maddipati provides an ethnographic account of people and housing in the Kolami village of Wagdara, where CSV introduced their Wardha model. The author points to the importance of urban realities, displacement and industrialisation in the villagers’ imaginings of regionality and residential layouts (p. 167). In this contemporary history of housing, it is refreshing to see the author’s movement from historian to anthropologist.
The book is not just an alternative architectural history of postcolonial India written in a well-articulated personal tone. It is also a reminder of a paradigm that surrendered to the aspirations for a ‘developed’ India.
While the state of the work needs to be reviewed for central schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which envisioned housing for all by 2022, the liberalised economic policies of the last three decades have facilitated a housing revolution, unfortunately, in the form of the capitalist real estate boom. Housing for all as a socialist project lost the confidence of the great Indian middle class, and its limited delivery on the ground further killed its nobility. Maddipati’s ethnographic work in the book’s later half shows the other side of India, which has lost its hope in the roller coaster of urbanisation, industrialisation and migration.
While the book excels in its depth and scholarship, there is room for a more tailored approach to engage present students, especially those in architecture and planning. While intellectually stimulating, Maddipati’s immersive writing style may challenge younger students more accustomed to accessible texts. Recognising the agency held by undergraduate students as future practitioners is crucial for India’s sustainable and inclusive future. A redesign of the narrative to cater to the specific needs of this audience could be a valuable addition.
In conclusion, Gandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Architecture is a thought-provoking work that rekindles the relevance of Gandhian ideals in the contemporary built environment and urbanisation discourse. It challenges established narratives and prompts a re-evaluation of housing as a concept and process. It offers a unique perspective often overshadowed by conventional academic essays and glossy real estate brochures.