Friday, March 17, 2006

Aesthetics, technology, and social reform

Exhibition Opening and Lecture Golconde: The Introduction of Modernism in India
Tuesday, February 21, 6pm Graham Foundation, 4 West Burton Place, Chicago Extended through Thursday, May 25, 2006. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 10am to 4pm.
Sited on the coastal edge of the Bay of Bengal, Golconde, a dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, was designed by architects George Nakashima and Antonin Raymond. Golconde is a remarkable architectural edifice, seamlessly negotiating between the tenets of early modernist architecture while addressing the pragmatic impositions of a tropical context. Espousing radical economy and uncompromising construction standards, it proposes environmental sensitivity as a foundation for the design process. Completed in 1942, Golconde was the first reinforced, cast-in-place concrete building in India and clearly celebrates the modernist credo: architecture as the manifest union of aesthetics, technology, and social reform. This exhibition assembles construction drawings, architects' letters and journals, and extensive photographs of this extraordinary building.
Pankaj Vir Gupta and Christine Mueller are founders of the office of vir. mueller architects, which combines architectural research, education, and practice...Copies of Nature, Form, and Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima by Mira Nakashima are available for purchase at the Graham Foundation. Back to program listing 2006 Graham Foundation posted by John @ 1:00 P

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