08-05-2019, 09:07 AM
Joseph Allen Stein was born in Omaha, USA. Stein’s architectural education began at the University of Illinois in the mid-1930s. He went on to study in France at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Fountainebleau before returning to Illinois to pursue graduate studies. Stein attended the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan as a Fellow in Architecture and City Planning before moving to New York to work for Ely Jacques Kahn. The American midwest was the centre of a regional modern movement influenced by the work and teachings of Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. The design approach developed was very different to the Bauhaus modernism then taking hold in Europe, which arrived on the American shores with the immigration of Walter Gropius, Mies Van der Rohe and others just before the Second World War. Joseph Allen Stein, the pioneer of regional modern architecture is known for his style of ‘Regional Modernism’
Arrival in India
Richard Neutra, who had been invited by the Government of West Bengal to be an adviser, proposed Stein's name as head of the newly-formed Architecture and Planning Department at the Bengal Engineering College in Calcutta. Accepting the invitation, Stein arrived in 1952, he spent the remainder of his career in India, retiring in 1995.
First notable building design by Stein based on regional modernism style in India are Triveni Kala Sangam arts complex (1957-77) and the India International Centre (1959-62).
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Ashok B Lall, who had worked with Stein in the '70s, says that " I remember him telling me that he was looking at good place to work. He decided to make a home in Delhi. He found his house in Sundar Nagar with a great view of the Red Fort."
In Delhi, surrounding the IIC Stein continued to Design a series of buildings which have become landmarks - the Ford Foundation, the United Nations, the World Wide Fund for Nature and most recently the huge India Habitat Centre. The works in the capital city saw a peculiar approach with the architectural experimentation by the architect.
Stein says that "Two things have essentially guided my work. One is what you might call an interest in and search for an appropriate modern regionalism. I would put equal emphasis on both words, 'regional' and 'modern', because regional without modern is reactionary, and modern without regional is insensitive, inappropriate. The second one is to seek the character of the solution in the nature of the problem, as much as one possibly can,"
Stein collaborations with Pritzker Prize winning architect B.V.Doshi brought the notable works such as Convention Centre in Srinagar , IIM Bangalore etc. His works were indeed a reflection of himself- Simple and Humble. He is known to have lived a calm life with a common man perception on way of living. He has always had his vision inclined towards the normalcy of life with the natural touch. He enjoyed the silent beauty of the ecosystem in the mountains of Kashmir for which he took steps for preservation. His ‘vision’ thus went beyond the regional boundaries contradicting his ‘works’ that had a concentration on the regional context.
Arrival in India
Richard Neutra, who had been invited by the Government of West Bengal to be an adviser, proposed Stein's name as head of the newly-formed Architecture and Planning Department at the Bengal Engineering College in Calcutta. Accepting the invitation, Stein arrived in 1952, he spent the remainder of his career in India, retiring in 1995.
First notable building design by Stein based on regional modernism style in India are Triveni Kala Sangam arts complex (1957-77) and the India International Centre (1959-62).
Ashok B Lall, who had worked with Stein in the '70s, says that " I remember him telling me that he was looking at good place to work. He decided to make a home in Delhi. He found his house in Sundar Nagar with a great view of the Red Fort."
In Delhi, surrounding the IIC Stein continued to Design a series of buildings which have become landmarks - the Ford Foundation, the United Nations, the World Wide Fund for Nature and most recently the huge India Habitat Centre. The works in the capital city saw a peculiar approach with the architectural experimentation by the architect.
Stein says that "Two things have essentially guided my work. One is what you might call an interest in and search for an appropriate modern regionalism. I would put equal emphasis on both words, 'regional' and 'modern', because regional without modern is reactionary, and modern without regional is insensitive, inappropriate. The second one is to seek the character of the solution in the nature of the problem, as much as one possibly can,"
Stein collaborations with Pritzker Prize winning architect B.V.Doshi brought the notable works such as Convention Centre in Srinagar , IIM Bangalore etc. His works were indeed a reflection of himself- Simple and Humble. He is known to have lived a calm life with a common man perception on way of living. He has always had his vision inclined towards the normalcy of life with the natural touch. He enjoyed the silent beauty of the ecosystem in the mountains of Kashmir for which he took steps for preservation. His ‘vision’ thus went beyond the regional boundaries contradicting his ‘works’ that had a concentration on the regional context.