Architect Balkrishna Doshi wins world’s most prestigious architecture award the Royal Gold Medal of UK, 2022

With a 70 year career and over 100 built projects, the 94-year-old has influenced the direction of architecture in India and its adjacent regions through both his practice and his teaching

Ahmedabad-based Balkrishna Doshi (94) will receive the Royal Gold Medal 2022 by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the world’s highest honour for architecture,  a report in the Indian Express says.

The award will be presented to Doshi at a special ceremony in 2022.

RIBA said on Thursday that with a 70 year career and over 100 built projects, 94-year-old Mr. Doshi has influenced the direction of architecture in India and its adjacent regions through both his practice and his teaching.  

RIBA President Simon Allford has said, “It was an honour and a pleasure to chair the committee in selecting Balkrishna Doshi as the 2022 Royal Gold Medallist…he has influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture. Influenced by his time spent in the office of Le Corbusier, his work nevertheless is that of an original and independent thinker – able to undo, redo and evolve

Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Queen Elizebth II and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence on the advancement of architecture.

RIBA President Simon Allford has said, “It was an honour and a pleasure to chair the committee in selecting Balkrishna Doshi as the 2022 Royal Gold Medallist…he has influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture.

On hearing about the award Mr. Doshi  said: “I am pleasantly surprised and deeply humbled to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Queen of England. What a great honour”. 

“The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953 when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal. I vividly recollect his excitement to receive this honour from Her Majesty. 

Born in 1927 in Pune, to an extended family of furniture makers, Balkrishna Doshi studied at the J.J. School of Architecture, Bombay, before working for four years with Le Corbusier as senior designer (1951-54) in Paris and four more years in India to supervise projects in Ahmedabad.

Many of his iconic buildings include Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Sangath, his studio in Ahmedabad; Ahmedabad School of Architecture – renamed CEPT University in 2002 – which promoted collaborative learning; and Aranya Low Cost Housing (1989), Indore, which won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1995.

Today, six decades later, I feel truly overwhelmed to be bestowed with the same award as my guru, Le Corbusier – honouring my six decades of practice. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my wife, my daughters and most importantly my team and collaborators at Sangath my studio.”

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