Abstract:
Charles Correa is often associated with context-sensitive architecture. The existing literature perceives him alongside Indian modernism, contemporary vernacular, post-modernism, regionalism and critical regionalism. His work is much appreciated either as an alternative to Western architecture or as an all-inclusive Eastern ideology but remains unrecognized for its universal nature. Few scholars have detected its universal appeal, barely hinting at its inherent spiritual aspects, but an in-depth investigation has not been attempted. The research attends to this gap by unravelling Correa's notion of the sacred as present in his writings and architecture thus bringing forth its universal appeal. A fresh interpretation is formulated based on the understanding of a circular relation in theme-phenomenon-theme and project-architecture-project methodologies. This investigation builds upon the universal elements in Correa’s work by dissecting the established perception. The themes of movement (ritualistic walk), emptiness and axis mundi are derived along architect’s notion of the sacred. The research queries Correa's design approach, the inspiration/influences constituting the sacred themes and their expression in his work. It reads Correa's architecture along the extracted themes with the help of literature, archived drawings and author's photographs to trace the concepts of 'deep structure' and 'transformation' while establishing their relation with architect's notion of the sacred. Correa's notion of the sacred is about that universal element which pervades the length and breadth of human species as the presence of our true self while his design approach draws on Jungian ‘archetype’ & ‘individuation’ and Chomskyan ‘deep structure’ & ‘transformation’. It is argued that the phenomenon of sacred as a design intent is present consistently throughout Correa's career as an underlying idea with numerous expressions beginning with his initial project to the very last.