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Featured Architect: Charles Correa

Since 1958 when he established his private practise in Mumbai, India, Charles Correa has been making an impact on India's approach to housing low-income families.

Making an impact on India's approach to housing low-income families

A 2006 recipient of India’s esteemed Padma Vibhushan award, Correa has adapted the language of modern architecture to create low cost, yet humane habitats that are easily constructed from traditional materials. Coupled with his land-use planning and community projects philosophies, Correa continually goes beyond typical solutions to third world problems.

Key to Correa’s design approach is his understanding of the unique cultural requirements and needs of his native country. He recognizes that living in an Asian city requires much more than the use of a small room. In a 1987 book focused on his work, Correa said, “Such a cell is only one element in a whole system of spaces people need in order to live.”1 He identifies this hierarchical system as consisting of four major elements: space needed by the family for private use, areas of intimate contact (e.g. the front doorstep where children play), neighbourhood spaces, like a water tap, and urban area open space used by the whole city.

Since nearly all Asian societies are located in warm climates, Correa stresses the importance of having open-to-sky spaces where families can entertain, cook, relax or sleep. In hot, humid places like Mumbai, these functions can be performed in a private open courtyard or terrace for 70% of the year. A balance must be struck between rooms and open spaces that will give the optimum housing pattern. Says Correa, “To identify the spatial hierarchy (which varies with the cultural/climatic context) and understand the nature of these trade-offs is the first step towards providing economical housing… This is why many attempts at low-cost housing perceive it only as a simplistic question of trying to pile up as many dwelling units as possible on a given site, without any concern for the other spaces involved in the system.”2

This philosophy is reflected in the incremental housing developed in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, completed in 1986. The project demonstrates how high density housing (500 people per hectare) can be achieved in a low-rise typology, while including open spaces and services, like schools, that the community requires. The overriding principle for this development was to give each unit its own site to allow for expansion. Consequently, families do not share walls with their neighbours, allowing each to expand his own house. The houses are constructed simply and can be built by traditional masons and craftsmen, generating employment for local workers. What is more, several plans exist that cover the gamut of social spectrum, from squatters to upper income families. Yet, the footprint of each plan varies little in size (from 45 m2 to 70 m2), maintaining equity in the community.

Correa gives careful attention to natural ventilation and comfortable accommodations in crowded living conditions. In the Maharashtra Housing project, Correa demonstrates how a squatter populous, displaced while their own living quarters were being repaired, can be humanely accommodated, even at high densities in eight-story apartment buildings. Just 20.9 m2 were allotted per family since the housing was temporary. The units were arranged in clusters of four, so that each unit is a corner unit, ensuring cross-ventilation. The building was designed with only three elevator stops, which greatly reduces costs. However, the stop locations are open community spaces where people can congregate and productive activities can take place. As well, all staircases can be accessed there and good ventilation achieved. With only three elevator stops, all 277 residents are serviced much faster than with traditional floor-by-floor elevator corridors. The absence of elevator corridors also allowed for the creative structuring of the corner units and the open spaces so that families have the privacy, yet have access to the open areas.

With such sensitive and ingenious approaches to addressing an age-old issue, it’s little wonder that Correa was asked to serve as the Chief Architect of Navi Mumbai, a city of 2 million people across the harbour from Mumbai, and that he was appointed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as the first Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanisation. Correa has received numerous awards, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Praemium Imperiale of Japan and Gold Medals of the UIA and RIBA.

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