A tribute to the legacy of Christopher Charles Benninger

Beyond the largesse of his architectural vision for many vast campuses and institutions he executed, Christopher Charles Benninger’s legacy is secured because of his spirit of compassion, an ethos of happiness and a commitment to truth and integrity. A story is recounted by Ramprasad Akkisetti, Managing Director at CCBA Designs. In 2016, when Shanghai businessman Lv Songtao visited the Buddhist center at Nagaloka, Nagpur he fell into a deep peaceful slumber. Upon waking, he wondered, who could be the architect of this place? He had an epiphany that buildings should have a life and soul. He found Benninger, and commissioned him to build Green Valley Global R & D Centre at Shanghai. After Christopher’s passing on October 2^nd 2024, Songtao paid homage at the memorial function calling him ‘Ben Tao Sheng’ which means wisdom rises in the moment of enlightenment.

Likewise, when Italian curator Rosa Maria Falvo stepped into Benninger’s home and studio, India House in Pune, suddenly the city noise stopped and the mind stilled in that tranquil abode. India House has a central open-to-sky courtyard between the two monolithic blocks of home and office, based on a Maharashtrian wada. There are several thresholds, a lap pool, many markers of regional symbolism in the artworks, making it a space that is both modern and contextual simultaneously. Such breakout spaces and pathways that let users seamlessly circulate, connect and converse are part of every CCBA design. The campus becomes a mini world where spaces are pleasurably navigated through welcoming passages, past intriguing walls, across greens, from enclosed spaces to open courts. In Benninger’s path-breaking design for IIT Hyderabad’s Lecture Hall Complex, the inclined curved shear walls of the lecture halls are an imposing feature from the outside. The plan is organic with circular clusters of seminar halls growing like buds from a central spine that cuts right through. On two levels, across 69, 671 square feet, there are 15 lecture halls of varying sizes to accommodate 72, 100, 120, 200, 400 and 800 attendees.

IIT professor Deepak John Matthew tells me, “From the ground level, the ribbed wall looks like a circular tent. The corridor is the wow space. There’s a feeling of a cathedral with arches. The flat waffled ceiling and curated lighting add to the dimensionality. The biggest issue of many auditoriums is that, when everyone comes out, the space gets very crowded. Benninger designed spacious wide corridors interspersed with large glass windows, bringing both light and shade.”

The life story of every genius comes with serendipitous chance encounters and this American architect had many that led him to India. Invited by his mentor, economist-writer Barbara Ward (who wrote India and the West), Christopher attended two Delos symposiums (1967, 1968) and understood the practical connections between economics and housing. In Colombia during his student days, Benninger describes seeing a poor man sharing his frugal fare with a hungry boy, moving him to design for economically weaker sections. Benninger who first came first to India on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1968 to work with BV Doshi at CEPT, returned three years later to keep his promise: to help establish a School of Planning. Soon after settling in India in 1971, he brought his thesis project of “sites and services” to a Madras suburb of Arumbakkam: plots with services for low income groups to build their own homes as per their capacity. World Bank, who was the sponsor, would make this a model for many regions across the world. Pritzker Prize winning Japanese architect, Fumihiko Maki (1928-2024) who visualized a similar proposition called Group Form, writes how impressed he was to see Christopher’s model, along the same lines, towards a practical outcome.

Having done his Masters in Urban Planning at MIT, and Master of Architecture at Harvard, under eminent professors Josep Lluis Sert and Kevin Lynch, and influenced by intellectuals John Kenneth Galbraith and Arnold Toynbee, Benninger paved a path to holistic design. “The fabric of architecture is composed of several threads, and the role of the architect is to weave all of these threads into one cohesive piece of work. One must blend History and Context, Functionality, Aesthetics and Visual Cohesion, Sustainability, Cultural Significance and User Experience into the spaces they design.”

Benninger saw modernity not as contrived or exhibitionist architectural forms, but in achieving a fine balance. In this, he prescribed the middle path, aligned with Buddha and Gandhi. He writes, “This is where the good life lies, in the in-between zone.” Christopher found meaning in drawing from local narratives, materials and construction. His willingness to address regionality and not impose any stylistic directive, led to the fabulous design of the Royal Supreme Court at Thimphu, where the sacred patterns of Bhutan are inscribed on the façade.

Each of Benninger’s projects is marked with a defining trait that speaks volumes about his humanistic approach to architecture. For the Forbes Marshall factory at Chakan, Naushad Forbes was looking for a beautiful space to be designed. That’s when he found Christopher, whose people-centric approach stood apart. “Rather than asking about how many square feet, Christopher wanted to know what kind of work people would do in a space, and what they would do for a break.” The award-winning factory was visualized as a vast garden precinct, where people would eagerly anticipate their day and feel a sense of pride. The way in which each pavilion functions within its confines is unique, with offices fluidly connecting with the factory floor spaces. Work spaces get abundant natural light filtered through aluminum jalis over glass. Naushad Forbes talks about the enduring qualities. “Of course, the immediate reaction is the physical beauty of the space and the aesthetics. But the real deep satisfaction is the way in which the spaces get used and the pleasure of spending time in it that’s worthwhile.”

How do you address conflict, chaos, diversity and inequalities? Christopher saw the city as having a key role in mobilizing resources, fostering debates and creativity, creating access and exchanges. With footprints across the world, in South Africa, Southern Asia, Sri Lanka, China, and of course his adopted home, India, for Christopher Charles Benninger, architecture was a tool to bridge cultures, bringing people together through harmoniously built environments.