Doorway

Balkrishna V Doshi; Maqbool Fida Husain

Doorway from the inside, Amdavad ni Gufa/Husain-Doshi Gufa

View from the entrance under construction, Amdavad ni Gufa/Husain-Doshi Gufa, circa 1993

This document is embedded in …

Doshi, Balkrishna V., and Maqbool Fida Husain. Amdavad ni Gufa. Ahmedabad: Vastu Shilpa Consultants, 1995.

… (related posts)

Sunday, 12th October 2014 - [INTERVIEW] Security doesnt come with gates, it comes from relationships: BV Doshi

2327-31a.jpg

Scale 1:10, Elevation of Exit Dome. 18th Jan (Signed "Husain, 13 II '94") © Vastu Shilpa Foundation

People misunderstand the meaning of Vastu. It implies balancing of energies, not necessarily following orientation and placement dogmatically. Happiness depends on the relationship between family members. People talk of environmental design as a system, not human beings as the main cause of building. The focus must be biological needs and social connectivity. Security does not come with gates, it comes from relationships.

S S 3365.jpg

While designing the gallery, Amdavad-ni-Gufa, you worked with tribals for the construction. Why?

It was a challenge for me and MF Husain to create what we didn’t know. I decided to find a magical building I had never thought of. I made a myth — if you have myth, there is magic, you get enchanted and ask why is this so. I experimented with several models, and finally decided that it had to be like soap bubbles, the volume has to be there like a basket of fruits.

If you walk inside, you get a sense of the gufa. We built a ferrocement lightweight structure, which can only be built by the tribals because it is a thin layer covering a chickenwire mesh, then clad it with China mosaic. It gave the impression of walking on the sea shore. Rounded buried shapes were available inside, the junction was supported by columns, which come in the form of forests that take varied shapes. A regular mason couldn’t have built this, so we worked with tribals.

[Doshi, interviewed by Vandana Kalra]

Aζ South Asia

...to Construct

...to Construct

Conservation

Critique

Dialogue

Education

Enaction

GREHA (गृह)

Listings

MPISG

Publications

RTI Cases

Writing

Search this digital archive

Doorway

This document is embedded in …

dest4191.jpg

dest4195.jpg

dest4197.jpg

gufa-20.jpg

gufa-65.jpg

gufa-67.jpg

gufa-17.jpg

dest4192.jpg

dest4193.jpg

2327-31a.jpg

S S 3365.jpg

Amdavad ni Gufa

Chester Herwitz Art Gallery

Husain-Doshi Gufa

Maqbool Fida Husain at the Husain-Doshi Gufa