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The Doshi Retreat, designed by Ahmedabad-based architects Balkrishna Doshi, Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and Sönke Hoof, will open on October 25 at the world-renowned Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. This is the first building on the campus designed by architects from India.
Pritzker Prize laureate Doshi, who passed away two years ago, was commissioned this project by Rolf Fehlbaum, furniture designer and former chairperson, Vitra, when he visited India in 2020. Fehlbaum had visited a shrine at the Modera Sun Complex in Gujarat and wrote a mail asking: ‘Would you consider building something like this on the Vitra Campus?’ Khushnu, Doshi’s granddaughter, elaborates, “That’s how Doshi, Sönke and I came together and worked on the project.”
Khushnu and her husband Sönke in their description of the project, say: “The retreat is not something to look at, but to experience. It defies definition, invites interpretation and dialogue and encourages a presence of being, even if it’s for a brief moment.”
With references to his own studio Sangath, in Ahmedabad, the winding pathways of the retreat form part of the theatre of the architectural experience. Done in weathered steel, supported by Arcelor Mittal and Mittal Family and the ceiling handcrafted by local artisans from Ahmedabad, the retreat sits among other architectural greats such as Tadao Ando and SANAA (Japan), Zaha Hadid (Iraqi-British), Frank Gehry (Canadian-American )and Álvaro Siza (Portugal) works.
Vitra is not a new venue to Doshi’s works, though. The furniture company, known for its designer marquee, hosted Doshi’s first international retrospective titled, “Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People” in 2019. Curated by Khushnu, it was a reliving of Doshi’s 60 years of practice as an academic, architect and urban designer. Some of Doshi’s major buildings include Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore; low-cost housing project Aranya (Indore), art gallery Amdavad Ni Gufa, performance spaces Tagore Hall and Premabhai Hall (Ahmedabad).
In his talk at the Vitra exhibition, Doshi spoke of how architecture is an unexpected experience. “It is theatre, it can be narrow or small…but architecture is everyday life. Every day we want to narrate and create stories. That is what architecture does.”
The retreat also carries forward Doshi’s legacy through Khushnu and Sönke, as a reflection of dialogue between design, culture and identity.
