Pritzker Prize–winning architect Balkrishna Doshi passed away in 2023, at the age of 95, leaving behind a lasting legacy. Doshi’s first and only built project outside of India, the Doshi Retreat, opened posthumously this month in Germany.
The project was a close collaboration with Doshi’s granddaughter, architect Khushnu Panthaki Hoof; and Sönke Hoof, Panthaki Hoof’s husband. Panthaki Hoof is principal architect at Ahmedabad-based Studio Sangath.
The Doshi Retreat is located at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, famously home to buildings designed by Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza, SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Marina Tabassum, and many other iconic architects.
Two years after his death, Doshi now joins this list of bonafide architects to have contributed to the campus, with a serpentine, helix path that leads visitors to a contemplation chamber made of steel. The Doshi Retreat offers space dedicated to contemplation inspired by Indian spirituality.
The project started when Rolf Fehlbaum, former chairperson of the Vitra; and his wife, Federica Zanco, visited a small Indian temple near the Temple of the Sun. Fehlbaum showed a photo of the inspiring structure to Doshi, and asked the architect if he would design a similar place for the Vitra Campus.
“This architecture was born from a dream Doshi had of two interweaving cobras,” Panthaki Hoof said in a statement. “From this subconscious vision emerged a written narrative, followed by a sketched concept composed of notes and evocations. It then evolved into an invitation to embark on a journey of discovery.”
It took a few years—and collaboration between the late architect, his family, and the team at Vitra—for the Doshi Retreat to be realized.
The concave, steel contemplation chamber has a rain water basin encircling its base. Two wide semicircular stone benches and a gong define the chamber’s center. A small aperture in the ceiling allows in natural light, air, and precipitation.
This opening is located adjacent to a hand-hammered brass mandala that was crafted in India. The instrument reverberates sound throughout the space.
The sculptural new addition to Vitra’s campus is made of low carbon-emission metal, a composite material made of scrap steel produced entirely with renewable energy. Its patina will darken over time thanks to controlled corrosion.
The retreat’s formal qualities take inspiration from Kundalini, a Sanskrit spiritual philosophical term that means “coiled” or “spiraled.” Kundalini denotes “latent energy at the base of the spine,” Vitra added.
At certain intervals, visitors become eye level with blades of grass. Landscaping was a major component of the design: several trees were located amid the serpentine pathways, adding to the contemplative quality the work exudes.
“It is sound—resonating through the visitor’s body—that erases the boundary between self and structure,” Panthaki Hoof described. “The building reflects the sound back toward you, transforming both the journey and the chamber into resonant instruments. In the final decade of his life, Doshi shifted somewhat from architecture to art. But with this project, here turned to the drawing board—first to write, then to guide us in shaping the design.”
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