The Cave Man

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The Cave Man

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Aadal Arasi Posted: Dec 08, 2002 at 0000 hrs IST

The Husain-Doshi Gufa. There are no doubts in architect Balkrishna Doshis mind about the one creation of his that continues to mesmerise him as much as it did when it was conceptualised. Its been a decade since the idea came into being, born of a 35-year-old friendship with Husain, says Doshi. Husain was always curious about architecture. Once, long ago, he questioned me about the ideal construction for a place like Ahmedabad, where it is summer for the major part of the year. I told him that underground construction was the answer. This planted the germ of the idea in some corner of my mind and I remembered it years later when we hit upon the idea of building a space for cultural activities, where Husain could also display his paintings. Architect Balkrishna Doshi at Husain-Doshi Gufa,
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Ahmedabad But dreaming up the idea proved to be easier than convincing the contractors. They couldnt understand the amalgamation of the depths of the earth, its surface and the space above, remembers Doshi. So we had to rope in tribals to work on the ferro-cement structure. Even when the gufa (cave) was coming up, Doshi could see the confusion among his students, to whom he had preached the concepts of foundation, straight walls, high ceilings and polished floors. Some thought it was a swimming pool when work was going on below the surface level, when it reached the plinth level, they thought it was a bunker, laughs Doshi. Even as it neared completion, very

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few could understand it, though they appreciated the essence of its architecture. Thats what makes this creation of mine special, that in spite of flouting all rules of architecture, this is a piece of architecture to reckon with. After the basic construction had been completed, Husain came to the Gufa armed with his palette and brushes and announced that he felt like painting. Thats when he did the free flowing lines inside the Gufa. With Rajesh Sagara, Husain painted the walls, ceilings, even the air-conditioners. Then I decided to relate it with the primordial tortoise and the cobra, so Husain took up his brush once again and painted a headless black cobra on the tortoiselike structures of the Gufa. Then we had specially baked black saucers that were later broken to complete the china mosaic on the structure, says the architect.

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The Cave Man

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