Christopher Charles Benninger - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Christopher Charles Benninger is an American-Indian architect and planner born in the United States in 1942. He studied urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

and architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where he later taught (1969–72).

Benninger studied under Josep Lluis Sert

Josep Lluís Sert

Josep Lluís Sert i López was a Spanish Catalan architect and city planner.- Biography :Born in Barcelona, he showed keen interest in the works of his painter uncle Josep Maria Sert and of Gaudí. He studied architecture at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and set up his own studio...

and worked in his studio. He was a protege of the noted economist Barbara Ward

Barbara Ward

Barbara Mary Ward , in later life Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental...

and a member of the Delos Symposium

Delos Symposium

The Delos Symposium was a forum for discussion and debate over issues of Ekistics, or the study of human settlements, in its widest sense.The Symposium was organized by the Greek architect-planner, Constantinos Doxiadis in the Aegean Sea, on board his yacht, and was held each June from 1962 through...

group, contributing articles to the journal Ekistics
Ekistics
The term Ekistics applies to the science of human settlements. It includes regional, city, community planning and dwelling design...

. He was influenced by the group's founder, Constantinos Doxiadis who led the Ekistics movement. This brought him into association with Buckminister Fuller, Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee was a British economic historian also noted for his social commitment and desire to improve the living conditions of the working classes.-Biography:...

, Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....

and Jaquline Tyrwhitt.

On the invitation of B. V. Doshi

B. V. Doshi

Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi is an Indian architect.-Early life:B. V. Doshi was born in Pune, India. He studied at the J. J. School of Architecture, Mumbai.-Career:...

, in 1971 he resigned from his tenured post at Harvard and shifted to Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, India as a Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

Advisor to the Ahmedabad Educational Society, where he founded the School of Planning. In 1976 he shifted to Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

, India, where he founded the Center for Development Studies and Activities

Center for Development Studies and Activities

The Center for Development Studies and Activities, , is a research and post graduate teaching institution located in Pune, India. Founded by the architect and urban planner Christopher Charles Benninger in 1976, the institute became well known for its pioneering work in decentralized planning,...

. In 1983 Benninger wrote the Theme Paper for the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements 1984. In 1986 he was engaged by the Asian Development Bank

Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...

to author their position paper on Urban Development, arguing successfully the case for extending financial assistance to the urban development sector. Benninger is on the Board of Editors of CITIES journal (UK), and on the Board of the United States Educational Foundation (Fulbright Foundation) in India. He is a Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Environmental and Planning Technology University, Ahmedabad, and on the Board of Governors of the School of Planning and Architecture

School of Planning and Architecture

School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi is a National Resource Institute of India. It is also one of the few premier 'Centrally Funded Technical Institutions ' under the Government of India. Currently there are 3 SPAs all over India, administered under the MHRD, Government of India...

, New Delhi.

While in Ahmedabad he innovated the concept of Site and Services

Site and Services

Site and services is an approach to bringing shelter within the economic reach of the poor. Recognizing that the vast majority of low income families in the world build their own shelter, which lacks basic hygiene, access and electricity, the strategy was developed...

, an approach to housing providing access to shelter via developed small plots, allowing poor families to construct their own homes, according to their means. For the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

and the Madras Urban Development Authority 1973 he designed over 20,000 such units in four locations, the largest being at Arambakum in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

. With the advent of institutional housing finance in India 1972 he created a unique neighborhood of small ground level houses for about five hundred households in Jamnagar

Jamnagar

Jamnagar is a city and a municipal corporation in Jamnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city was built up substantially by Maharaja Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji in the 1920s, when the district was known as Nawanagar. The district lies just to the south of the Gulf of Kutch and is...

, Gujarat. This was the first shelter program funded by the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

for the economically weaker section of society. In 1976–79, using funding from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation

Housing and Urban Development Corporation

The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited is a government-owned corporation in India. One of the public sector undertakings, it is wholly owned by the Union Government and is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. It is charged with...

(HUDCO), he built a township for low income households at Yusafguda, in Hyderabad with over two thousand houses, public amenities and shopping centres. This was the first project of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority

Hyderabad Urban Development Authority

The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority was created in 1975, vide an act of the State Assembly of Andhra Pradesh. Its jurisdiction was expanded in 2008 by merging it with the surrounding mandals to form the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority....

and provided owners with road access, street lights, storm drains, electricity and sanitary cores. Around these core facilities low income families could construct their own houses. For the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

and the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority, Benninger was part of a team that devised the (slum) Busti Improvement Program. This approach brought sanitation, potable water, electricity, storm drains, paved lanes with street lighting and community services to millions of low income citizens of Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

Works

Benninger's best known architectural works are a cluster of academic and educational campuses in the mountainous region between Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

and Pune

Pune

in India. These include the Center for Development Studies and Activities

Center for Development Studies and Activities

, the Mahindra United World College of India

Mahindra United World College of India

The Mahindra United World College of India is one of 13 United World Colleges, located 40 km west of Pune in Maharashtra, India. Established in 1997, the college has a population of about 200 students from all around the world who live together on campus for two years...

, the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies

Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies

The Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies is one of India's advanced centres of marine engineering and navigation.In addition to research, the institution offers extensive education and training in pre-sea and post-sea training for candidates ranging from cadets, on up through masters of great...

, the YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

Website - www.ymcacamplakeside.orgYMCA Camp Lakeside is located at Village Nilshi, in the Western Ghats between Mumbai and Pune, India.Camp Lakeside is a 40 acre campsite surrounded by the beautiful Andhra Lake...

, the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies and the International School Aamby. The Centre for Life Sciences Health and Medicine in Pune is a radical departure from his earlier work. Other important works are the Kochi Refineries

Kochi Refineries

The Kochi Refineries Ltd is an oil refinery in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. It is located in the Ambalamugal industrial district of Kochi. It has a production capacity of 7.5 million tons per annum as of Dec 1994...

Corporate Headquarters in Kerala, the Alliance Francaise

Alliance française

The Alliance française , or AF, is an international organisation that aims to promote French language and culture around the world. created in Paris on 21 July 1883, its primary concern is teaching French as a second language and is headquartered in Paris -History:The Alliance was created in Paris...

in Ahmedabad and SOS Children's Villages in Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

and Bawana outside of Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

. The new campuses for the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and the College of Engineering, Pune

College of Engineering, Pune

College of Engineering, Pune is an engineering college in Pune, India. Established in 1854, it is the third oldest engineering college in Asia, after the College of Engineering, Guindy and IIT Roorkee...

are nearing completion. Benninger was recently awarded the Azim Premji University in Bangalore and the Bajaj Institute of Technological Studies in Wardha where he has built the Bajaj Science Centre.

The Mahindra United World College of India

Mahindra United World College of India

won international recognition as the recipient of the Business Week/Architectural Record

Architectural Record

Architectural Record is an American monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design, published by McGraw-Hill Construction in New York City. It is over 110 years old...

Award for Excellence in the year 2000. This Award was sponsored jointly with the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

. Business Week called the Mahindra United World College of India

Mahindra United World College of India

one of the ten super structures of the world in the year 2000. The project also won the Designer of the Year Award in 1999. The Kochi Refineries Headquarters Building won the award as one of India's two best office buildings in 2005, sponsored by the Indian Architect and Builder "awards for working spaces".
The YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

won the Archies Award for the best Institutional Building 2006 and the Indian Institute of Architects

Indian Institute of Architects

The Indian Institute of Architects is the national body of Architects in India with more than 20,000 members. It was established in the year 1917 with its headquarters in Mumbai...

Award for the Best Public Building 2006. The British Society for Design and the Architecture Plus Design journal awarded Benninger the Recognition in Design (RED) Award as the Best Architect in India in November 2006. This was the first RED award given in India. His building Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies was selected for the Indian Institute of Archietcs as the Best Public Building for the year 2008 and by the J. K. Cement Awards as the best Institution in the year 2009. It won the Institute of Structural Steel Design and Growth Award 2009 as one of the two best steel structures in India.

Benninger's planning work includes development plans for six regional capitals in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, three new towns in Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

, the Development Plans of Kalyan

Kalyan

Kalyan is a city in Thane district of Maharashtra, and a major railway station lying at the junction of the north-east and south-east lines of the suburban Mumbai division of the Central Railway, 53 km north-east of Mumbai. Kalyan is also a major Taluka place, a tehsil of the Thane district...

and Thane

Thane

Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...

in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Mumbai Metropolitan Region

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region /Mumbai Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area consisting of the metropolis of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal councils...

, the plans for twenty-eight urban centres in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

and the Capital City of Bhutan, Thimphu

Thimphu

Thimphu also spelt Thimpu, is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's dzongkhags, the Thimphu District. The city became the capital of Bhutan in 1961...

. For Nepal he designed their decentralized planning methodology 1989 and for Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

their Shelter Sector for the Indonesian National Rural Development Program 1979-81. Benninger guided the planners of the Katenga Regional Development Authority in their design of the new economic region in Terengganu, an emerging region in the North-eastern region of Malaysia. Benninger's work in urban design, city management and town planning resulted in his Principles of Intelligent Urbanism

Principles of Intelligent Urbanism

Principles of Intelligent Urbanism is a theory of urban planning composed of a set of ten axioms intended to guide the formulation of city plans and urban designs. They are intended to reconcile and integrate diverse urban planning and management concerns...

, which guided his planning of the new capital of Bhutan.

Architectural works in progress include the new campus for the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is an institute of management located in Kolkata , India giving diplomas in management...

; the Indoor Air Conditioned Stadium at Ahmedabad; The Governance Center at Hyderabad and second campus of KIAMS at Pune.Suzlon One Earth

Suzlon One Earth

Suzlon One Earth is the world headquarters of the Suzlon Group of Companies, Asia's largest wind energy provider.Suzlon One Earth is the largest building complex poised for a LEED Platinum rated green building status in the Indian Sub-continent. It is a living laboratory of sustainable technologies...

, of the Suzlon Wind Energy Company, India House, new studios for Christopber Charles Benninger Architects were completed recently.

The studio in Bhutan

Bhutan

has completed Tshechu Ground, a major ceremonial plaza and pavilion for the annual National Buddhist festival and the coronation site for the Fifth King;and the Supreme Court of Bhutan; and the first four of the ten Secretariat Ministries that will form the National Secretariat Complex are under construction. The Bhutan Studio is also designing the new UN HOUSE in Bhutan.

Awards

In April 2010 Professor Benninger was awarded the Architect for the Decade Award his contribution to the profession of architecture over that period. Over the past four years, on three occasions, the Indian Institute of Architects has honored him with the award of Best Public Building of the Year for his designs of the Centre for Life Sciences, Health and Medicine, the YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

YMCA International Camp, Nilshi, India

and for the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies

Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies

. The design for Suzlon One Earth

Suzlon One Earth

has been honored by the Architects, Engineers, Surveyors Association of Pune as the Best Architectural Work in the City in 2009 and it was recently named the Most Sustainable Building in India, in a national competition. It is a LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....

Platinum and Five Star Teri Griha building.Christopher Benninger is currently the sixth winner in India of the Golden Architect Award for Lifetime Achievement (2006) that was conferred in May 2007 by the A+D and Spectrum Foundation. Over the past seventeen years, six Indian architects have been honored with the Great Master's Award, and in 2007 Professor Benninger became the seventh awardee. Over several years he was recognised as one of the top ten architects in India by Construction World Magazine.
His firm, Christopher Charles Benninger Architects, has a team of thirty-five professionals with studios in Pune

Pune

and Thimphu

Thimphu

, where he is designing the new Capital Complex. He has associated a group of technical consultants in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune in the areas of structural, services, landscape and interior design. CCBA offers comprehensive architectural services from design through supervision. In recognition of his contributions to the architectural and planning professions in India, Christopher Charles Benninger has been honored as the first recipient of the (RED) Recognition of Excellence in Design Award (2006). This was conferred by the Royal Society of Designers and
Architecture Plus Design journal in India on an Industrial Designer, on an Interior Designer and on an architect.

Books

On the 9th of May, 2011, at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan, an event, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, was held for the release of LETTERS TO A YOUNG ARCHITECT written by Christopher Benninger. The book was published by Createspace and was also released by Kindle in a digital version. Benninger's work can be found in other books such as The Urban Fringe in Indian Cities (2011); Timeless Inspirator (2010); Economics, Development and the Quest for Alternatives (1997);Politics of Modern Maharashtra (2000); and Conflict Resolution Through Non-Violence(1990).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Works

Awards

Books

See also

External links