This article looks at the written stories The Revelation, The Sacred Spring and The Legend of the Living Rock that accompany three built works in India – the Husain Doshi Gufa (Ahmedabad, 1992–95), the National Institute of Fashion Technology (Delhi, 1997) and the Bharat Diamond Bourse (Mumbai, 1998) – of Indian architect Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi. The stories open up the process of architectural making, calling into question standard distinctions between author and reader, between architect and user or others involved in the making process, and between description, narration and built work. Through them, Doshi’s architecture acquires an elusive property of being not theirs, not his, neither this nor that. Its spaces are alive – they evolve, grow and tell stories themselves long after the architect has left.
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