India is at risk of losing its architectural identity, because the country's design schools aren't teaching students to respect local heritage and traditions, according to architect Balkrishna Doshi. ... "Education is at the base of all these mistakes; we are not making students conscious of the value of things," Doshi said in the interview, which took place inside the Royal Academy, in London. ... "I would take students into the city and ask them in their mother tongue to explain what they were thinking," he explained.

"For example, I had a class that would say: 'This is a veranda, this is a terrace, this is a balcony'. And I would say, now tell me that in your mother tongue. Then they said: 'This is the place where we sat, we chatted, we exchanged ideas'. And when they talked about windows, they said: 'This is where we look from outside in and inside out'. So a window became something of curiosity."

By contrast, he said, most architecture schools are "looking at the body of a skeleton, and not what is below the flesh".

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One of the key features of Doshi's housing projects is the opportunity for adaptability – something that stems from an Indian tradition. It is commonplace for residents to add and remove extensions to their homes as the needs of families change, so the architect always tries to accommodate this.

Doshi sees this as proof that architects need to learn from their surroundings.

"I learn a great deal from nature, my teacher is nature," he said. "Do we grow up from tiny without mutilating ourselves? So why can't a building also become alive, so you can go on adding, changing, modifying?"

This ritual is so embedded in Indian culture, said Doshi, that even residents of new skyscrapers can be seen building extensions to their homes. "They're all adding to the balconies!" he exclaimed.