Charles Correa, Iconic Indian Architect, Dies At Age 84

Charles Correa, widely considered to be India’s greatest contemporary architect, died on Tuesday night at age 84.

The renowned architect and urban planner died in Mumbai following a brief illness, the BBC reported.

Correa, who designed the Gandhi memorial in the Western state of Gujarat when he was just 28, was known for his “open-to-sky” concept represented in the majority of his designs.

His influence was not restricted to his native country but spread across the globe, with international projects like India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, the Brain Science Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (from where he graduated in 1955) and most recently, the Ismaili Centre in Toronto, Canada.

He also designed several government buildings, academies, resorts and low-income housing units across India, and was the chief architect of the suburb of Navi Mumbai, built across the harbor from Mumbai proper.

Correa was a staunch critic of the way modern cities were designed, once saying: “Market forces do not make cities, they destroy them.”