Transcript of lecture by Sunita Kohli on Lutyens Delhi

I have been called upon to talk about Lutyens Delhi. If

Sir Edwin Lutyen was alive I am not so sure if he would
have approved of me, as in a conference he had been
asked a question regarding the future of women in the
field of architecture. He had replied by simply saying
that it depended on the architect that they married
and since my husband is not an architect I probably
shouldnt have been asked to make this address in the
first place, according to him. This would be considered
as an extremely racist remark in todays time and age
but it was simply his opinion at that point of time
which he expressed. The British Raj was established in
India in 1857 and it lasted up till 1947.
Initially there was no specific style of construction used
by the British Empire in India. The buildings were
essentially functional. As the empire continued to grow
and develop, several experimental styles developed.
Soon the British ruling authority realized that across all
rulers and times one thing had been common and that
was the way of expression of power of a dynasty. The
power or strength of a dynasty was judged based on its
outward show of wealth, grandeur and splendour. The
British kept changing their capitals in the Indian

Subcontinent. They had Shimla and Northern India as

their summer capital, Calcutta as their winter capital.
In the coronation durbar held in Delhi in 1911, New
Delhi was proclaimed as the new capital of the British
Raj in India. This shift in capital ordered by lord
Hardinge was an extremely controversial one. The
population of Calcutta were against this shift, due to
the change in position of their hometown, from that of
a capital to a mere province. The only pro to this shift
was the fact that, all the previous dynasties as and
when had shifted their capital to Delhi, soon
afterwards declined and lost the imperial throne to
another.
Edwin Lutyens at that time was a prominent architect
in England. He became well known with his buildings
such as, Julius Drewes castle Drogo, Overstrand Hall
Norfolk, le Bois de Moutiers.
Edwin Lutyen was born in London in the year 1869. He
came to be known as the best British architect of the
19th century. He is also famous as the last
traditionalist. According to him, he hadnt been well
educated. Any talent that he had was due to the ill
health he kept as a child. He said that it gave him time
to think when all other children were busy playing and

indulging in activities, of which he could not be a part

of. Apart from this, he was a gifted painter and a
mathematics genius.
He interned for the first time at a firm owned by Ernest
George and Harold Peto, in 1887. It was during this
period that he first met Herbert Baker. This is a direct
quote from Herbert Baker, He got through the six
months, joking and criticizing. He puzzled us and knew
some great truths about architecture that werent
supposed to be learnt there.
In 1889 at the mere age of 20 Edwin Lutyen got his first
commission. Even when he didnt have a commission,
he drew and designed every day, not caring whether it
was going to actually be constructed or not. The fame
of this man reached such great heights in England by
the 20th century that, every Edwardian of that period
wanted a house designed by Edwin Lutyen and a
garden designed by George Dillistone.
Hence when a town planning committee was set up for
the new capital of the British Raj, it was no surprise
that Edwin Lutyen was an extremely important
member of this committee.There is a photo of Sir
Edwin Lutyen atop an elephant with the other

members of the town planning committee on a site

visit of Delhi. Of all the places they saw they found
Raisina hill suitable for the viceroys house. The central
access that is, the Kingsway (the now Rajpat) would
come up to the palatial forecourt of the Viceroys
house (the now Rashtrapati bhavan). The north south
block, Queensway (the now Janpat) were all planned
around the Viceroys house. On the intersection of the
Queensway and the Kingsway was planned an
intellectual and cultural plaza with a library, museum,
congregational space. There was also a war memorial,
designed with a statue of George the fifth in front of it.
The War Memorial is now known as the India Gate and
also the statue has been removed. The avenue leading
up to this War Memorial was planned to be twice the
width of the Champs Elysees in Paris. Delhi was always
from the very start planned as a garden city. The War
Memorial was to be surrounded by gardens and so was
the Viceroys house. The pre-existing monuments were
to be utilized as strong visuals in the planning of the
city. The overall plan of Delhi that had come about was
extremely similar to that of Paris and Washington D.C.
There were also to be constructed avenues from the
Viceroys house leading up to the Jama Masjid and Lal

Quila. Hence the entire plan of Delhi, the new imperial

capital was a centralised, with the central focus as the
viceroys house. It was a hexagonal plan.
The next important task set in front of Sir Edwin Lutyen
was the creation of a definite Imperial style. Neither
the bare classical style of England nor any of the
previous architectural styles followed in India were
thought of correct to design the buildings of the newly
planned city.
To gain inspiration Edwin Lutyens paid a visit to Agra
and Jaipur.
After this visit he wrote a letter to his wife in which he
stated that there was no great architecture in India.
There was just construction in spurts by mushroom
dynasties. He described Hindu architecture to his wife
as symmetrical square plans with stones placed on it
and each has lace work on it. By this he was referring
to the Khajuraho temples. He further in his letter
described Mughal architecture as huge masses of
rough concrete placed on octagonal or hexagonal plans
with inlay stones. The roofing is done by placing three
turnips in concrete and inlay work in marble for which
if the stones are not they are then stolen from other

dynasties. Though these comments may sound

extremely racist in todays time and age but Lutyen did
actually go on to take a lot of elements of Indian
architecture in the new imperial style that he created.
Even though he never gave Indian architecture the
credit that it deserved it he still took elements straight
from it and put it in the imperial style. Apart from the
Mughal gardens of Delhi which were a copy of the
Mughal Gardens of India he did not verbally admit to
taking any inspiration from Indian architecture ever in
his carrier. The emperor of Delhi at the time of city
planning was adamant about the use of the Mughal
arch in the design of buildings in Delhi.
To this Edwin Lutyens response was that European
classicism could only be represented via the round
arch. He further added that to which country did the
rainbow belong and that the rainbow was not pointed.
There is a book called The letters of Edwin Lutyens to
his wife Lady Emily, in which he describes the
experiences of his 19 voyages in India via 250 letters.
It was felt by the British rulers that a western message
could not be expressed on a western building. Neither

could the sterile stability of English classicism be used

to create Modern India.
Hence a new imperial order was created by sir Lutyen.
The underlying principle of which is the renaissance
style of architecture.
The Viceroys house that was designed was entirely a
renaissance composition with vernacular idioms of
Indian architecture. The main building consists of 340
rooms sprawled across 320 acres of land.
Predominantly stone was used along with some
amount of steel and brick. A very important feature of
the building is the use of chajja which shaded the
several openings of the wings. There are common
repetitive openings due to the number of rooms and
also as fenestrations hence this created shade by
blocking light.
Several jaalis carved in stone were also placed all over
the structure. The jaali of the Sidi Saiyyad mosque in
Ahmedabad was taken as it is and placed as a part of
the bhavan. Lutyens also apparently designed a jaali
for the Rashtrapati Bhavan, but actually that is a jaali
design that actually pre-exists in Red Fort. But
obviously he refused to acknowledge that. Sir Edwin

Lutyen designed the faade of the building in red

sandstone with bands of cream stone. These bands
were horizontal in nature and hence they emphasized
on the massive scale of the building. The excessive use
of red sandstone could have beencredited to Lutyens
visit to Agra, where he visited Fatehpur Sikri. A city
carved by Akbar in red sandstone, which is essentially
his trademark in India. But obviously neither did Akbar
nor did Indian architecture obtain any credit for the
same.
Another dominating feature of his design is the copper
hemispherical dome placed on top of the building. This
is similar to the Sanchi Stupa dome.
The dome is 80ft in height and stands over the durbar
where the investiture ceremonies take place. The
dome is a double dome, with Palladian influence. The
design of this dome is influenced by the design of the
Pantheon. As some of you may be acquainted with the
open to sky oculus. This was actually closed in the
dome in Rashtrapati bhavan as its a double dome
structure and concrete would be seen if such an
opening was given. There are cobras statues present
around the fountains of the south court. Also there are
elephants engraved on the basement entry.

One of the most important features of the Imperial

style and that Lutyen designed was the Delhi Order. He
did not use any of the pre-existing orders in the
Rashtrapati Bhavan. He designed a new column with
bells on all four sides. These bells pleased the Hindu,
Buddhist, Jain sentiments and hence were greatly
appreciated.
Sir Edwin Lutyens was a man who was greatly taken up
by crafts and paid a lot of emphasis to them.
He was also extremely taken up with Khadi. He wanted
to use khadi silk in the upholstery of the Rashtrapati
Bhavan, but he refrained from doing so due to the
strong nationalist overtone that khadi had acquired
due to Gandhi.
For the last two times I have got the opportunity to be
involved with the restoration work of the Rashtrapati
Bhavan. I made it a point that khadi silk was used to do
up the furniture at the time of the restoration. Also I
had the good fortune of being in close contact with
Edwin Lutyens youngest daughter, to whom I related
this. And she was quite pleased to know that her
fathers wish had been fulfilled.

Not only did Edwin Lutyen design the building he also

designed several other things of the building such as
furniture, clocks, doorknobs, etc. His tables had a
geometric complexity to them. The library is exquisite
with a beautiful floor mandala pattern.
The British authorities had ordered Mughal gardens to
be designed around the Rashtrapati bhavan.
The Mughal gardens of the Rashtrapati Bhavan had all
the essential features present in all the pre-existing
Mughal gardens. They had sunken gardens, terraces
etc.
The central sunken garden was to entertain ladies in
purdah of high birth. This just show how even the
slightest detail was so well planned and thought of.
The entire bhavan has an imperial appeal to it with its
tennis courts, squash courts, stables, dairy, etc.
Though the Rashtrapati bhavan was to be completed in
4 years it eventually took 17 years to complete. It got
completed in 1931.
But it was complete organism on itself after
completion.

Lutyen wanted Baker to design the north and south

block even though they had actually been
commissioned to him to design.
Baker exhibited the very same tonic and discipline for
architecture that Lutyen had.
He designed the parliament house of Delhi with 12
miles of corridors connecting the various rooms.
The design of this particular building ignited a fight
between Baker and Lutyen as Baker was not pro the
Colosseum design suggested by the latter.
All the bungalows that come in Lutyens Delhi are
actually not designed by Lutyen. They are in fact
designed by Baker.
Initially Edwin Lutyen had proposed designs for the
bungalows but as per his designs the construction cost
that was coming did not fit in the budget.
Whereas the designs that Baker proposed for the same
were within budget. Hence Bakers designs got
approved and he was given the commission for these
bungalows. While this happened Edwin Lutyen was
commissioned the War memorial, the Hyderabad
house and princess house.

Now even though it is known as Lutyens Delhi a lot of

the buildings have not been designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyen himself. This was so also because of the large
inflow of architects into Delhi due to the attraction it
proposed. It was new city being constructed from
scratch and it held an appeal to one and many such as
Robert Tor Russell. He was also an important architect
involved in several of the projects coming up in the
new capital such as police stations, buildings, etc.
He also designed the Teen Murti House. Lutyen took
inspiration from the Arc de Triomphe while designing
the War Memorial of Delhi.
Hence its quite evident that he acknowledged all his
external inspirations and influences in designing the
city of Delhi apart from the Indian influences.
The pine cones carved in the War Memorial in Delhi
are influences taken from the pine cones of the Vatican
City.
Castes are as carefully in the bungalows in Lutyens
Delhi as they are in the Hindu religion.
In 1931 New Delhi was officially inaugurated. Before
the inauguration there was meeting called to discuss
the new name that shall be given to Delhi. Now Lutyen

was very bad committee member. He mostly did not

visit the committee meetings and did not agree to
most of the proceedings unless they were done his
way. So well he did attend that meeting. The meeting
carried on for very long in the hot summer month of
May, where all possible names ending with PUR were
being suggested for Delhi. With sweat pouring off
everybody and Sir Lutyens patience running out, he
firmly commented that the new name of Delhi should
be kept as OOZYPUR. As the immediate response to
this the new name of Delhi was decided as New Delhi.
Edward Hudson the owner of Country Life magazine
was a big admirer of Sir Edwin Lutyen and published
every single building that he designed in his magazine.
So when Lutyen and his wife Emily were coming to
India for the inauguration of New Delhi they brought
along Edward Hudson and his wife too. When Edward
Hudson saw New Delhi he was moved to tears.
When the latter returned, in a local church that was
being constructed near their house they painted
frescoes. The fresco showcased the Viceroy of India
sitting on a throne dressed in an Indian sherwani, with
Sir Edwin Lutyen in front presenting him with a map of

Delhi and Baker right behind him. Both dressed in

Indian sherwanis.
According to Lutyen architecture was about building
with wit. He designed the cupola of the Rashtrapati
bhavan as his hat. Also he sneakily put his spectacle in
the design of the walls.
Despite all his influences from various styles of
architecture, Lutyen had a rare originality of mind and
genius.
He created, what came to be known as the crowning
British achievement in India. Lutyens Delhi is
monumental. It is a rare masterpiece that is now
somewhat under threat.
The 33 square miles of Lutyens bungalows need to be
preserved and kept under strict watch. These buildings
do not just belong to the government but they belong
to the nation.
Lutyens Delhi dominates the capital even today and is
the main attraction of the current city. What Sir Edwin
Lutyen created was truly an amazing capital not only
for that time but for generations to come.