JOSEPH
ALLEN
STEIN
AN AMERICAN ARCHITECT IN IND/AIn his twelve-year stay in India, Joseph Allen Stein has designed buildings for a variety of purposes-schools, art centres, low-cost houses and factories. In character, his works reflect the changing mood in Indian BY KENNETH PHOTOGRAPHS
C.
WIMMEL
BY RAGHUBIR
SINGH
visitor to the office of Joseph Allen Stein and Associates asked the American architect which was his favourite among the buildings he had designed in India, he paused and thought for a moment, then said, "I guess the one I'm working on now." It was a fair answer. In the course of his career as an architect both in the United States and India, Joseph Stein has designed many buildings for a variety of purposes. To choose, for example, between a graceful building for school of art and music, and a simple, almost stark factory, is impossible. Both are suited for widely divergent purposes. When Stein came to India twelve years ago from a successful architectural career in the United States, it was to teach rather than to practise his profession. But in the course of three years' teaching at the Bengal Engineering College of the University of Calcutta, the idea of working in India captured his imagination. His teaching assignment completed, he decided to stay in India and establish a firm. Today, Joseph Allen Stein and Associates is.one of the busiest architectural firms in India. Like his designs, Stein's office is simple and functional. Tucked away on the third floor of an office building in Delhi, it contains a desk and a few chairs. On the walls are displayed drawings of buildings, some completed, some yet to be built. In one corner is a model of the American International School in New Delhi. And like his office, Stein is an unpretentious man who prefers discussing his work to talking about himself. He smiles frequently and chooses his words carefully as he describes his experiences in adapting his ideas to India. ECENTLY, WHEN A
R
Essentially modern architecture today.
While emphasizing that conditions in the two countries differ, Stein noted that some of his buildings in India could easily be built in the United States without many modifications. To illustrate his point, he indicates a drawing of the new Indian Express Building in Bombay. It is a tall, modern office building that looks little different from modern buildings in Paris, London or New York. "There is really no reason to want to look different," Stein explains. "It is an office building-air-conditionedand it has the problems of resistance to wind and rain, the problem of getting people into the building and up to the offices, the problem of fire protection and light and ventilationin fact, all the structural problems that go into such a building. These are universal problems." However, it also has certain problems peculiar to Bombay and these are also reflected in the design, as example the high humidity and a location facing the storms from the Ocean. But even these conditions are not unique to Bombay or India. However, in other areas such as housing or site planning and even in use of materials large differences do exist and these need to find expression in design. Stein can speak knowledgeably of conditions in the u.S. and India, since he has worked in both countries and acquired firsthand experience in each. Before coming to this country the fifty-two-year-old architect, born in Nebraska and educated in America and France, had already gained a reputation for his novel ideas and techniques. From 1937 to 1945 he worked in architectural firms in New York and Los Angeles and, later, moved to San Francisco, California, to begin his career as an independent practising architect.
Cement walls are brightened by the gril/ework at the Centre.
JOSEPH STEIN
The Centre has ample room for spacious lawns, pools, gardens.
Continued
Stein advocates the dictum that form follows function, which is reflected in his designs.
His first commission in India was as consultant on the housing for the workers of the big steel plants which were springing up in eastern India. Though he has worked on many different projects since, he says that he still considers town planning and low-cost housing the greatest challenge to the modern architect. "Ever since industrial values have influenced city planning," he says, "the typical working class neighbourhood has mirrored increasingly limited and cynical attitudes, as may be unmistakably seen in the phenomenon of the 'labour lines,' with their grim rows of identical, box-like houses, staring out across treeless lanes." Stein believes that in India, the process of industrialization is gaining momentum and with it is linked inevitably the process of shaping new ways of life for the new industrial workers. The kind of city and type of neighbourhood they live in, will do much to influence the character, the capabilities and the output of this rapidly growing segment of the population. Specifically, modern Indian town planning so far, he believes, has suffered from an unnatural divorcement of man from nature. In the planning of new Indian towns, therefore, nature will have to be invited back to the land. Besides, adds Stein, "the imponderable longings of the spirit and the joy and beauty of living are also needs to be remembered." Stein is a proponent of the dictum "Form follows function" and his designs reflect it. "Modern architecture gives a vast amount of flexibility and a tremendous number of choices and techniques," he says. "We have a saying which we tell to all new members of the firm. We say that we seek the character of the solution in the nature of the problem." Stein's buildings have the modern simplicity that is today changing the face of Delhi and, indeed, of all India. Among the many modern apartment and office buildings that are springing up in Delhi, three structures designed by Stein and his associates are notable additions to the nation's capital. They are good examples of Stein's work and of the changing
architecture of modern India. On Tansen Marg, not far from Connaught Place in New Delhi, stands a tall, graceful building fronted by a green lawn and bright beds of flowers. The home of a school for painting, music, and classical Indian dancing, it is called Triveni Kala Sangam. The school was established over ten years ago by its
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In Stein's design of low-cost housing monotony is avoided by use of carefully landscaped open spaces and limited vistas. present director, Mrs. Sundari Shridharani, and the present building was one of Stein's early commissions in India. There is a feeling of spaciousness throughout Triveni, and it is a surprise to discover that the entire structure is built on only one-half acre of ground. Every inch of space has been utilized fully to provide all the facilities for the school and still Continued on next page SPAN
March 1965
15
To be truly meaningful to its times, architecture should be a "concept of human destiny."
The circular structures of the American International School permit a number of activities to take place in a single room.
Graceful and refreshingly new in design Triveni Kala Sangam is fronted by green lawn, a pool and bright heds of flowers. Escorts factory, Faridabad, is one of Stein's recent projects. The design would suit the same purpose in California or Texas.
leave room for the lawn, flower beds, and a small pool which contribute so much to the beauty of the building. In another part of New Delhi, in a beautiful setting surrounded by Lodi Gardens, is the India International Centre designed by Stein. An institution devoted to furthering international understanding through the study of the cultures of many lands, the Centre derives its support from universities all over India as well the Rockefeller Foundation and from individual members. It houses facilities for conferences and research and a hostel with single and double rooms for sixtyfour guests. In addition, there is a library with a capacity for 12,000volumes, an air-conditioned auditorium seating 250, and a conference room with facilities for simultaneous translations into six languages. The Centre consists of two long buildings connected by a covered terrace. Much larger than Triveni Kala Sangam, it is situated on a spacious plot which allows ample room for pools, fountains, gardens and lawns. Everything in the Centre is modem, from the stainless steel kitchen to the individual air-conditioning controls in each guest room. Though the basic building materials are Indian, the interior appointments accent its international flavour-glassware from France, kitchenware from Britain, air-conditioning plant from the United States. Yet with all its international modernity, the Centre allows the visitor to enjoy the architectural beauties of ancient India in which Delhi abounds: and it is conceded that it fits in gracefully and harmoniously with the ancient Lodi Tombs directly behind the Centre. In contrast to the basically rectangular buildings of the International Centre are the circular structures of the American International School in the Chanakyapuri area of New Delhi. Stein chose a circular design for the school buildings, he says, because "the site is small, when originally planned only about six acres-twenty-five per cent of what would be normal for a school of that size. If you put two rectangles together, they fill the space and the area between them tends to be cramped. If you use circular forms in the same limited area, the restricted space flows out into the open space and vice-versa." One result of the circular design is the shape of the classrooms. They are wedge-shaped, like slices of a pie, allowing maximum exposure to light and air. This shape also permits a number of activities to take place in one room without groups of students disturbing one another. The school is set on the rocky ridge which runs through New Delhi, and the buildings nestle among large boulders which are strewn over the area. Stein explains that the site provided an interesting architectural challenge. "Here we had an irregular and not very attractive site. But still, like any piece of the world that has not been obliterated by man, it had potential. One of the most interesting problems in architecture is to try to find what is potential." Stein's architecture, therefore, aims at placing man in the true perspective of his surroundings. Any architecture or planning to be effective and meaningful to its times, has to be a "concept of human destiny," he says. Driving down Mathura Road through Faridabad a short distance outside Delhi, Stein points to the empty fields stretching out on both sides. "In ten years," he says, "this road will be lined with factories. It will be a busy, bustling place. That is the challenge of India." •