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1. Architect Joseph Allen Stein in his office in New Delhi. Blueprint of the National Trade Centre and Exhibition Building in Pragati Maidan (i993), New Delhi, is in the background. 2. Stein:S typical singlefamily house in Mill Valley, California (i947). built in a garden setting. 3. The American Embassy School (1962) utilizes natural features of the boulderstrewn site, New Delhi. 4. India international Centre (1962), New Delhi. 5. Model of the india Habitar Centre (1993), New Delhi.
merican architect Joseph Allen Stein, who became an icon of modem Indian architecture, died at the age of 89 in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 6. After his arrival in India in 1952 as head of the newly-formed department of architecture, town and regional planning at the Bengal Engineering College in Calcutta, he showed no inclination to return to his native country. He made India his permanent home and dedicated his long professional life to building wonderful edifices all over the country. His contribution to Indian architecture during the past five decades was astounding. The General Education Centre at the Aligarh Muslim University, the India International Centre, the Australian High Commission, the American Embassy School, all in New Delhi, the Kashmiri Conference Centre on Dallake in Srinagar and ICRlSAT in Hyderabad are among the landmarks which Stein designed. He did the town planning for India's two giant public sector steel plants at Rourkela and Bhilai. A recent and most idealistic architectural project was the India Habitat Centre in New Delhj where he explored a new means of bringing living beauty to a crowded urban setting tlu'ough the integration of buildings with vertical gardens. Stein's contribution to architecture in India should also be seen in the context of heritage. A salient aspect of Stein's work was his continuing concern for the environment. His ideas of "sustainable ecology" in an urban context and of micro-climate modification as a means to save energy and resources were implemented in his designs, which continue to be models for young architects. Biographer Stephen White's very aptly titled book, Building in the Garden: The Architecture of Joseph Allen Stein in india and California, documents the work and philosophy of Stein, and hjs z efforts in planning and conservation, particularly in the Himalayan and ~ other mountainous regions. A visit to any Stein building conveys to the a: observer his philosophy: better life for all might be attainable and 8 sustainable in surroundings that incorporate nature's bounty.