Meyerson hosts tribute to works of S. Asian architects

Workers in Meyerson Hall spent last week hanging photos of New Delhi's landscape in preparation for yesterday's opening of a tribute to four prominent South Asian architects. The photos cast images of a city with two vastly different styles of architecture -- the traditional Islamic structures with colorful facades and modern skyscrapers straight out of the Western tradition. The curator of the exhibit, Shakeel Hossain, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that buildings exhibiting the two styles are as little as a mile apart in New Delhi. "They're so close, yet so different, that it's funny to see them together," he said. The Meyerson Hall exhibit -- which continues through the end of September -- and a similar display in the Arthur Ross Gallery were the focus of a presentation last night by Balkrishna Doshi, considered the most influential architect in India. He spoke in Meyerson Hall on the topic, "Between Notion and Reality." Only one month after India celebrated its 50th year of independence from British rule, the event highlighted the tensions between Indian and Western influences. "It's a struggle continuing in the minds of all citizens of India," Doshi said. "Our identity was lost during that period of British rule. We forgot who we were." Doshi taught at the University in 1984."I was trained by a Frenchman and learned to make buildings as they do in the West," he added. "But I found that they didn't speak to Indians or reflect who they were or how they lived their life." But Doshi said he eventually discovered the Indian past he said was absent from the early years of his life. "I visited the Hindu temples in Southern India and watched the people away from the city live their lives," Doshi said. "I found what India had lost." Doshi noted that he then began to change the way he approached architecture, designing buildings that exhibited a marked association with the Indian past. The tribute to Doshi and three other South Asian architects is located in the Arthur Ross Gallery in the Fine Arts Library. Across Locust Walk, meanwhile, M.I.T.'s Hossain put the finishing touches on his adjoining exhibit to the uniqueness of India's traditional architecture. Looking at the photos of New Delhi, Hossain noted the row depicting the old part of the city and then to the ones showing the newer section. "People want buildings to look different all over and say they look the same," he said. "Look at how beautiful and full of life these buildings are. I hope India can find a mix between the two."