AR. CHRISTOPHER CHARLES BENNINGER

The award-winning American-born ‘guru’ on his indelible impression on the sands of modern Indian architecture

- Maria Louis

He wears multiple hats quite jauntily. The chairman of the 25-year-young Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (CCBA) is an academician, having founded two important institutions (The School of Planning in Ahmedabad (which he founded with Balkrishna Doshi in late 1971), and the Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA in Pune) from where generations of planners have graduated. After studying at MIT and Harvard University in the USA, Prof. Benninger decided to make India his home, untiringly contributing to the profession of Architecture and Planning for the past five decades. He began his teaching career at The School of Architecture in Ahmedabad (1968) and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (1969-71). Prof. Benninger’s early works were influenced by his association with modernist architects and the initial projects, like the CDSA in Pune, and the United World College of India, gave way to a more individualistic style. Later, through projects like the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies, Suzlon One Earth and the Indian Institute of Management at Kolkata, he explored modern materials and sustainability as underlying themes. Residing and working from India House in Pune, his studio is supported by a team of 30 architects. Little wonder then that he was called upon to head the design jury for India’s National War Memorial, at the India Gate lawns in New Delhi..