PUNE: In the early 1990s, when award-winning filmmaker and author Arun Khopkar first visited the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (Iucaa) to attend its inaugural function, what caught his attention was veteran architect Charles Correa’s elegant interweaving of contemporary cosmological concepts with the centre’s architectural form and imagery, capturing the spirit of the enterprise it was to house.
“I found the idea fascinating,” he recalls. “I liked the feel of the building, which was more than the sum of its parts.”
That wasn’t the first time Khopkar had experienced the appeal of Correa’s design. A visit to Ahmedabad’s Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in the 1980s had brought him an opportunity to feel “the rhythms of its spaces” and appreciate how “it responded to changing lights”. He was also aware of Correa’s inventive design for the 28-storey Kanchanjunga Apartments in Mumbai that kept out heat and noise while letting in breeze and views.
Complete at Times of India – More on Charles Correa at akdn.org
Ismailimail 