Analyzing the Architectural Approach of Ar. Uttam Chand Jain through the Study of Four Educational Institutions

Abstract

India after Independence was left hanging in the middle of the West and the past. Which relevant concept should be taken forward for it will dictate the future of the country was the biggest dilemma. There were many driving forces such as Nehru’s vision, political movements, the need of infrastructure due to industrialization, partition, farmer’s needs, architects’ approaches and beliefs, move ments from around the world such as Brutalism, deconstructivism and the import of foreign architects. Out of the many approaches, modernism was the most rooted solution since one could see it was the most practiced form in the early years of Independence. The concept was gradually questioned by many architects after a dec ade of its practice since it felt like a mere imitation of ideologies without considering the context or the rich culture of the country which gave rise to the Post-Modernist approach. Uttam Chand Jain was one of those architects who chose to re spond to our traditions and revive them in some form because he believed that the biggest strength of India is its rich heritage. His thoughts were traditional but his approach was modern. He had undertaken 70% of his projects as educational institutions because it was really important for him to nurture the future generations by imparting the right set of knowledge and a suitable environment for the same. Education institutions had a crucial role to play in forming the country’s identity. The new term used for such an approach was ‘Indianized Modern’ which solely meant the mixture of vernacular and contemporary architecture (Lang, 2002)