Housing & Urbanisation, Charles Correa

Housing and Urbanisation
Charles Correa Thames and Hudson 1999 £9.99

Correa is one of the outstanding international architects of his generation and sought to find contemporary expressions for traditional elements of Indian life. He has been involved in many architectural and planning projects and at one stage was the chairman of the National Commission on Urbanisation.

The book contains a wide range of examples and it must be appreciated they are part of a much larger spectrum of projects. The housing section contains about 40 projects and gives a useful summary of how Correa's work developed from 1961 to 1999.The examples illustrate how he deals with the issues of climate and how to create good conditions by natural means - by air flow, cover and layering and goes on to examine how central open-to-sky spaces create meta-physical qualities in individual houses, groups and townships.

The urbanisation section forms about a quarter of the book and examines such issues as a Bill of Rights giving principles for housing in the third world, proposals for expanding Bombay and work of the National Committee on Urbanisation 1985-87. However this section dips into too many issues which are not covered in enough depth: the Bill of Rights refers to eight principles but does not follow these up: the Urban Manifesto is only given one page. The Bombay expansion is covered in more depth but doesn't communicate enough about the situation today.

The book was no doubt seen as a brief overview of Correa's work - it succeeds in the housing context but does not do his work or ideas justice in the urbanisation section. Nevertheless he has and continues to make important contributions to housing in particular so it will be a useful reference, modestly priced, particularly for people unfamiliar with his work. #

John Billingham