An excerpt from ‘Charles Correa: Citizen Charles’

by Mustansir Dalvi I Scroll I Published on: Oct 25, 2024

Charles’ formative years were spent in the Ballard Estate, a planned precinct in a city that grew through a series of additions. The estate had come to be less than fifteen years before Charles was born. Designed by the Bombay architect George Wittet in the Edwardian neo-Classical style, the Estate was set up grid-wise with large office blocks, which had elaborate stone facades. There was consistency and rhythm in the buildings whose facades lined leafy avenues and well-lighted open spaces. This new business district, reclaimed through the creation of the adjacent Alexandria Dock, placed the Ballard Estate between the port and the Fort precinct, the latter being the heart of Bombay at the time. Charles’ grandfather had his offices and home here. As a child, Charles would love to walk down to watch ships, big and small, come and go at the Ballard Pier. He was especially fond of the dry docks, where ships would be lifted out of the water in their entirety. He would be in awe of the massive hull, rising above him like an upside-down roof.

Back home, Charles would obsess over his train set. Here, he would learn that a drawing is a metaphor for a way of seeing the world beyond the confines of paper. Through its lanes and avenues, Charles would see how concepts and order, first visualised in two dimensions, can be realised in built form.

Read the full article here From the biography: How Bombay’s diverse architectural landscape inspired architect Charles Correa