Environmental sensitivity for the design process

Golconde is also "a dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India...designed by architects George Nakashima and Antonin Raymond," completed in 1945 and named for nearby diamond mines. This building is the subject of an exhibition (by Pankaj Vir Gupta and Christine Mueller) on display at the Graham Foundation until May 25, as well as a gallery talk on March 28 by Andy Tinucci.The building is notable for being "the first reinforced, cast-in-place concrete building in India," though Gupta and Mueller view it as "one of the earliest works of sustainable modern architecture in the world, [espousing] the virtue of radical economy and uncompromising construction standards". posted by John @ 1:00 PM

Exhibition Opening and Lecture Golconde: The Introduction of Modernism in India Tuesday, February 21, 6pmGraham Foundation, 4 West Burton Place, Chicago Extended through Thursday, May 25, 2006. Monday through Thursday from 10am to 4pm.

Sited on the coastal edge of the Bay of Bengal, Golconde, a dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, was designed by architects George Nakashima and Antonin Raymond. Golconde is a remarkable architectural edifice, seamlessly negotiating between the tenets of early modernist architecture while addressing the pragmatic impositions of a tropical context. Espousing radical economy and uncompromising construction standards, it proposes environmental sensitivity as a foundation for the design process. Completed in 1942, Golconde was the first reinforced, cast-in-place concrete building in India and clearly celebrates the modernist credo: architecture as the manifest union of aesthetics, technology, and social reform. This exhibition assembles construction drawings, architects' letters and journals, and extensive photographs of this extraordinary building.

Pankaj Vir Gupta and Christine Mueller are founders of the office of vir. mueller architects, which combines architectural research, education, and practice. Gupta and Mueller currently teach at the University of Texas at Austin. With Cyrus Samii, they traveled to India in 2003 to conduct research on the architecture of Golconde. Gupta has taught design studios at the Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico and is founder of Reading India , a study-abroad program that explores the architecture of ancient and contemporary India. He received his M.Arch. from Yale University. Mueller, who has lived in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S., has taught design studios at the Boston Architectural Center and the Career Discovery program at Harvard University. She received her M.Arch. from Harvard. Copies of Nature, Form, and Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima by Mira Nakashima are available for purchase. Back to program listing 2006 Graham Foundation