Le Corbusier "used to prank" Balkrishna Doshi says granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof

The late Balkrishna Doshi's time working under modernist pioneer Le Corbusier sparked a career of fun and creative freedom, his granddaughter and fellow Indian architect Khushnu Panthaki Hoof tells Dezeen in this interview.

"[Doshi] would never want anyone to be serious," Panthaki Hoof said.

"He would say to me, 'You've been too serious'," she said, laughing. "It was because he worked with Corbusier, who used to prank a lot."

Panthaki Hoof, the co-founder of Studio Sangath, said that as a child, her grandfather Doshi spoke so highly of Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier that she initially mistook him for a relative.

"[Doshi] considered him like his grandfather. They had a very close relationship," she explained. "Growing up, I didn't know who Corbusier was, so I thought he was a relative."

"There was a picture of Le Corbusier in his room and every morning he would look at the picture, and it was picture he had taken of Corbusier looking at him," she added. "He really revered his teachers."

"Every day he had to challenge himself"

According to Panthaki Hoof, Doshi's working style across his 70-year career was heavily influenced by his early days working under Le Corbusier.

The pair first met at a conference in England, shortly after Doshi graduated and Le Corbusier had been commissioned to masterplan the Indian city of Chandigarh.

It was this crossing of paths that led to Doshi working in Le Corbusier's studio in Paris for four years, before he returned to India to supervise the firm's projects in Ahmedabad.

Panthaki Hoof said that during their time working together, Le Corbusier encouraged Doshi to start every day afresh, which she believes was the reason for his eclectic portfolio, from the Aranya Low-Cost Housing development to the brutalist Tagore Memorial Hall.

"If you look at his work, [the projects are] all very different," said Panthaki Hoof. "There's not a single style that he followed because he really believed that every day he had to challenge himself through something new."

"That came from what Corbusier said. He told him that 'You must always remember that every morning you're born in the skin of a donkey', so, you have to reinvent yourself every single day. That was very important to him."

Doshi went on to teach this philosophy to his granddaughter, encouraging her to find her own path in architecture.

She said this has ultimately freed her of any pressure to continue Doshi's legacy in a particular way, following his death in 2023.

"If it doesn't get built, it doesn't matter"

"[Working with him] was not about doing what he was doing. It was really about learning to follow your own path and staying true to the profession," explained Panthaki Hoof.

"It was more about a philosophical way of looking at things. He was somebody who wanted you to be free – he wouldn't hold you back," she continued.

"Of course, initially, one feels the pressure [to continue his legacy], but slowly you realise that, no, that's not what he wanted. I think he wanted to free you from that."

Panthaki Hoof spoke to Dezeen at the opening of Doshi Retreat, a winding meditation space at the Vitra Campus in Germany, which was Doshi's last-ever project and his first outside of India.

The building was developed with, and completed by, Panthaki Hoof and her husband Sonkë Hoof, with whom she leads Studio Sangath.

Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum had originally commissioned a small meditation space, but Panthaki Hoof said her grandfather playfully pushed the brief, resulting in the final 75-metre-long structure.

"Rolf was looking for a two-metre-by-two-metre space, and then [Doshi] got so excited we did this," said Panthaki Hoof.

She recalled feeling nervous to present Fehlbaum the daring design, but Doshi said "if it doesn't get built, it doesn't matter, we'll have fun", reflecting his lighthearted approach to architecture.

"He said 'It doesn't matter if they don't build it, but this is how it has to be'," she explained.

"We just had fun"

Panthaki Hoof suggested this design process is a reflection of the 20 years she spent working with her grandfather at his studio Vastu Shilpa Consultants, which he founded in 1955.

"We worked with him for almost over two decades," she explained. "It was a very open-ended process. He was not someone who would tell you that this is how it's to be done. And I think that has been the biggest learning from him as a teacher."

"It was more about provoking me, because he loved to provoke, asking 'Let me see what you can do with this'," she continued. "We just had fun."

It wasn't just Panthaki Hoof that Doshi liked to tease.

One of his favourite stories to tell was how he'd confuse visitors to his iconic studio space, Sangath, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where Studio Sangath is now based.

"At our own office space, Sangath, you come from the busy road and then you walk in, and it's not a linear path," said Panthaki Hoof.

"Then there are these long steps, 20 steps, going up. You would think that's where the entrance is, but that's not where the entrance is. Every visitor would get confused – that was his favourite story to tell, how he would confuse people."

Doshi passed away in 2023 at the age of 95, shortly after he was awarded the 2022 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

He realised more than 100 built projects across his career, and was widely celebrated for his influence on the direction of modern Indian architecture. In 2018, this led him to become the first Indian architect to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Doshi's nonconformist approach to architecture is encapsulated in some advice imparted to his granddaughter just 10 days before he died, which encouraged imagination and storytelling.

"In the last days he was at home, and I used to go there and sit with him in the garden. He would be on a wheelchair, and he would just stare at nature and sometimes say a few things," Panthaki Hoof reflected.

"I just wanted to ask him, what is the most important thing to remember in life? And at that point, he said, 'Fiction'," she continued.

"I said, 'Why fiction?' And he said, 'Because it has no beginning and no end. It constantly evolves, and it expresses fluidity of time. It's free, and that is what you should remember'."

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