AR.

RAJ REWAL
 Born on 24, November 1934 in village Hoshiarpur, Punjab.
 He lived in Shimla and Delhi in 1939-1951.
 He attended Harcourt Butler Higher Secondary School
 In 1951-1954,he attended Delhi School of Architecture,
New Delhi
 In 1955-1961, he moved to London and attended the
Architectural Association School for one year.
 He completed his formal professional training at the Brixton
School of Building, London
 He worked as an assistant stage manager for many
avante grade theatre productions in London.
 He became an associate of Royal Institute of British
Architects, London.
 He opened a second office in Tehran, Iran in 1974.
 In 1986, curator of the exhibition “Traditional
Architecture of India” for the festival of India in Paris
 He completed his professional education in Europe.
He met with 3 encounters which shaped his architectural ideology.
He developed his ideology and followed it for the rest of his life.
 First encounter, he relates to his interest in structures during which he
developed during the review of his diploma projects.
 Second one accounts on his working experience that he gained while he
was working as an assistant manager for several Avante Grade theatre
productions in London. As a set designer for the drama shows, he learnt
that each dramatic work had a particular character which he interpreted
as the rasa of the building.
 Third encounter, he worked with Michel Ecohard in Paris, before beginning
his own architectural practice. In this office, he learned the principles of
Urban design and Planning.

 AWARDS:
 Gold Medal from Indian Institute of Architects
 Robert Mathew Award from the Commonwealth Associations of
Architects.
Influences of Raj Rewal
The two major influence that he encountered
is the time when he returned to India. He
admits that those influences have helped him
in his development as an architect.

• When he became a Professor at the School

of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi.
• After studying the Projects of Le Corbusier. Humanyun’s Tomb a document
• Influenced by the typologies of traditional for Hall of Nations
buildings and cities like Jaisalmer.

Corbusier made contemporary designs. After

the success achieved by him in the planning
of Chandigarh City, it became evident to Raj
Rewal that Modern means can be applied to
build in India.
He developed a sense of Contemporary style
as well as learned to retain the traditionalism
of India.
City of Jaisalmer
“Breathing life and feelings into buildings,
rasa of architecture comes alive most
resoundingly in eminent architect Raj
Rewal’s works”
 PHILOSOPHY
Rewal’s designs have some
things in common with those of
his contemporaries Charles
Correa, Balkrishna V Doshi
and Achyut Kanvinde— such
as broken-up forms, open
courtyards and sociable living or
working environments. But
Rewal’s work has its own range
and grammar. Unlike the other
architects, and like Joseph
Allen Stein also in New Delhi,
Rewal has built largely in one
place and climate — Delhi, and
hot, dry north India.
 Liveable spaces
Important as his structural
innovations are, Rewal’s housing
and institutional complexes have
had a greater impact on Indian
modernism. The Asian Games
Village, and before that the
housing in New Delhi, have given
architects a useful way of
designing low-rise housing.

At the Asian Games Village, Rewal stacked apartments so

Sheikh Sarai housing
that the upper floor footprint was shifted by a module or
two with respect to the lower floor. This has given the upper
floors their own terraces. It has also created ‘gateways’ over
the pedestrian spaces around which the buildings are
gathered. Car parking is kept to the periphery, creating a
safe and attractive outdoor space for residents. This model
has been replicated in Vasant Kunj by the Delhi
Development Authority from the mid-1980s onward.

Grammar of form
• Rewal has helped transform a
modernism learnt from the West,
quietly, into its very opposite. The
continuities with Modernism in
his best work balance some
relatively radical departures from
Modernist dogma. Rewal has
developed a distinctive grammar
of his own.
• This grammar reflects two
apparently opposed value systems:
the traditional one of the hot and
dry parts of India, with its taste for
pattern and ornament, and the
Western Modernist one of abstract
expression. Rewal has been able to
combine the possibilities that each
one offers with the least discord.
This reflects a concern
for climatic sensitivity
and energy efficiency.
Delhi Metro
Corporation Head
Quarter, New Delhi
World Bank Regional
Mission, New Delhi
He is pained to see
developers investing in
glass. “Glass is for colder
climates. Its transparency
is nullified in hot weather
as you have to cover it
with heavy curtains. As
you shut the door to
nature, the cost of air
conditioning goes up
substantially.”
 Rewal’s grammar uses some of the principles of traditional architecture in Rajasthan —
upper floors project outwards to shade lower walls, jalis cut glare or improve a façade.
He uses the same material — sandstone — often, but as cladding for RCC (reinforced
cement concrete) and masonry structures rather than structural work. In effect, Rewal
reinterprets traditional stone architecture in modern brick and RCC.

British High Commission Housing-New Delhi Engineers Indian House, New Delhi
 Reconciling opposites
Much of the time, Rewal’s way of
resolving these contradictions is what
decides the success of his work. At
CIET, for example, Rewal manages to
sustain a delicate balance between the
slenderness of the circular RCC columns
and the visual weight of the red
sandstone-clad walls. Massiveness and
delicacy are held in fine counterpoint.

Central Institute for Educational Technology

At the STC building, however, the

State Trading Corporation tower
horizontal red sandstone bands interrupt
the verticality of the columns. This
curtails the building’s visual power.
Thus the traditional affinity for breaking
up large surfaces with pattern weakens
the power of Modernist concept and
 1

1. HALL OF NATIONS
2. ASIAD GAMES VILLAGE
3. PARLIAMENT LIBRARY
4. GUJRAL HOUSE 2
5. ISMAILI CENTRE

5 4
 AIM :
HALL OF NATIONS •Exhibition space
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi •To reflect symbolically &
technologically India’s important place
BUILDING TYPE: EXHIBITION in the modern, industrializing
YEAR: 1972 community of nations.
LAND: 130 Acres
The main pavilion has a clear span of
78 metres and a height varying from PLAN
three metres to 21 metres, thereby
providing a vast capacity for items to
be exhibited, from books to bulldozers

SITE PLAN
The depth of the structural system was
utilized as a Sun breaker and conceived of in
terms of he traditional 'jali', a geometrical
pattern of perforation that serves to obstruct
directs rays of the harsh Sun while permitting
air circulation.

Each of the halls was

initially conceived as
a full pyramid the
truncated form was
adopted in order to
avoid unnecessary
Octahedral measuring 5
constructions.
mts from joint to joint
were employed as 3 The Hall of Nations
dimensional unit of the being built at Pragati
space frame, which rests Maidan fairground in
on 8 pts around the Delhi in 1972. Built of
essentially square reinforced concrete,
planned and allows 11 this was the first
mts wide opening construction of its kind
between the supports in India.
• The main pavilion of the hall of
nations has a clear span of 78
m and a height vary from 3 m
to 21m , thereby providing a
vast capacity for items to be
exhibited from books to
bulldozers with an area of
approximately 6,700 sq.m in a
82m x 82m x 27m high
truncated pyramid supported
on eight points.

• The hall of industries on the

other hand is a combination of
4 smaller pavilions by ramps
enclosing a central area for
open air exhibits, utilities, toilets,
and other services are located
under the ramps. Each of the
four 'Halls of Industries' is similar
in design and is 44m x 44 m x
16m high
A special 9 member joint was evolved for
precast construction but the builder preferred
in-situ construction. The joint was modified to
suit the adopted technique.

The 'Halls of Nations' is supported on pile

foundations tied together with post tensioned plinth
beams stressed in stages. The 'Hall of Industries'
rest on spread footings tied together with high tensile
steel bars. The entire complex was analysed,
designed and built in a period of fifteen months
ASIAN
GAMES
VILLAGE,
NEW DELHI,
1980
 Concept is based on sequence of ope
spaces linked by narrow, shaded
pedestrian streets and containing both
residential and commercial activities

the combination of various dwelling types into an urban pattern of unusual diversity
(particularly in comparison to other DDA housing estates) makes asiad village quite
remarkable.
An obvious source of inspiration for such narrow streets linking the housing units is the
traditional street scale pattern found in many indian cities , where narrow paths become
spaces for encounters between people, the open squares offer a sense of neighborhood.
 Designed for an artist, the Gujral house provided approximately 800sqm
of living space also intended for the display of paintings and works of art.
 A central staircase connects various levels of the dwelling which have the
difference in height of one and a half meters.
 Certain interior spaces have direct access to outdoor gardens at differing
levels; the basement, for example, is one and a half meters from ground
level and contains a workshop for ceramics joined to sunken open court.
 Similarly the main living space at plus one and a half meters can be
continued outwards on to the raised garden.
 The Gujral house was constructed with exposed bricks, without surface
treatment internally or externally.
 Moreover the concrete floor slabs and beams were left exposed; the marks
of the wooden planks used for shuttering are still visible.
 Large pivoting doors of teak and glass separate the living areas and the
garden
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15 18
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14 15
3 18
19 19 17
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20
5 21
8
6 2
3
4
9
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11 13
 The house was designed for corner
plot in south delhi.
 It explores fluid spaces, which
connects the entrance hall, living
areas and dining room to display
paintings of this eminent Artist.
 A studio for the artist is located at the
upper most level above the bedrooms.
 The basement was designed to exhibit
the ceramics work of KIRAN
GUJRAL and adjoining garden was
sunk to provide ample light for it
 PEDESTRIAN ACESSS

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