The 2018 Pritzker Prize goes to Balkrishna Doshi

“My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create treasury of the architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expression for a sustainable holistic habitat.” For more than 70 years the architect, urban planner and teacher Balkrishna Doshi has actively participated in the discourse surrounding architecture – not only in India, but internationally.

Doshi was born in 1927. He took up the study of architecture at the School of Architecture in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1947, the same year that India won independence from Great Britain. Inspired by Le Corbusier’s buildings in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, Doshi established his own studio in 1956, where he worked for a decade as an associated architect with Louis Kahn in building the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

His many distinctions include the Aga Kahn Prize for Architecture (1993-1995). From 2005 until 2007, Doshi himself was a member of the Pritzker jury.