Gujarat State Fertilisers Corporation

Doshi's various township and housing studies of the past three decades constitute a virtual primer on how to build in a hot climate. He returns again and again to certain basic principles. The dwelling is always conceived in relation to the community as a whole. Natural devices are used to deal with the bad effects of sun or rain, and to encourage the flow of air. Standardisation in concrete is combined with local methods and materials. Basic types are worked out which respond to the overlapping uses of Indian life: sleeping terraces, steps, ledges, alleyways, all conceived as extensions of the house. Doshi tries to read the patterns of day-to-day culture, and to grasp what is constant and what is in change. His housing schemes are not senseless exercises in nostalgia: they are very much about the rapid modernisation which has occurred in India since Independence. The project for Gujarat State Fertilisers Corporation (GSFC) reveals the core of Doshi's planning method. It grew from the Indian Government's industrialisation policies of the early 1960s according to which new industries were to be located on the outskirts of existing towns or even close to villages. In this case, funding was divided between the company and the government, so the architect was rigidly bound to follow state planning directives in the design of the units. Decent modern accommodation was to complement salaries as a lure for white- collar labour. Industrial townships like that for GSFC Baroda had to be, in effect, small communities with their own schools, shops and theatres. Los diversos estudios sobre urbanismo y vivienda realizados por Doshi en las tres últimas décadas constituyen prácticamente un manual sobre cómo construir en un clima cálido. Vuelve una y otra vez a ciertos principios básicos. La vivienda siempre se concibe en relación con el conjunto de la comunidad.