Nari Gandhi was an Indian architect who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in the 1950s. He rejected mainstream architectural conventions and instead focused on using local materials and merging buildings with their natural surroundings. His works displayed skilled craftsmanship through innovations like constructing arches out of stacked earthen pots. Nari introduced unconventional ideas that rethought standardized practices and arranged building functions in new ways. He designed spaces that remained connected to the outside environment and allowed sunlight and wind to interact with indoor areas.
2. Nari studied
architecture at Sir J.
J. College of
Architecture, Mumbai
for five years in early
1950s. He traveled
to USA to apprentice
with Frank Lloyd
Wright at
the Taliesin and spent
five years there. After
Wright's death in
1959, Nari left Taliesin
and studied pottery at
the Kent State
University for two
years.
5. Vernacular architecture takes a new
birth He is seen using local
materials, as well as design
components into new forms and
merging them beautifully with nature.
6. Nari's ideologies and works were in sharp contrast to the
mainstream architectural thinking. His works display a
distinctive organic character. They appear to have evolved as a
response to the context, remaining strongly rooted to the site
and being very well connected to the surroundings. Nari's
works display highly skilled craftsmanship and structural
ingenuity. He has stacked earthen pots to construct arches out
of them and built stairs out of brick arches. Throughout his
works you see extraordinary use of stone, brick, wood, glass
and leather.
Nari rejected conventional ideas and paradigms and introduced
his own through his work. Through his work, he started
'rethinking' about standardized practices and set up his own.
When you visit any one of his houses, you will notice an
evident 're-thinking' of the arrangement of various functions
within the house. Each building designed by Nari is as an
example of unconventional thinking in architecture.
He created built spaces that remained forever connected to their
un-built surroundings allowing sunlight and wind to interact
with the inside and animate the space with time. Each house is
a series of dialogs between the built and unbuilt form.
7. Each of the structures Gandhi built
were products of happy marriage
between art and architecture.