For legendary Fumihiko Maki, ‘delight’ is the new mantra in global architecture

When the Japanese master architect Fumihiko Maki took the podium on Friday morning at the 361 Degrees Design Conference at Rangsharada Hotel, an eager audience of over 600 had gathered to see him. Architects, designers, conservationists, academics and students craned their ears to listen to the Pritzker prize-winning octogenarian as he explained his minimalist designs of schools, office buildings, auditoriums, other community spaces and a crematorium.

The last time he was in the city was in 1959, on a Grand Foundation Fellowship which he and his friend and renowned architect B V Doshi received. Maki decided to make a study trip on the work of Le Corbusier, the man behind Chandigarh’s urban plan. “I remember arriving in Mumbai, which was of course very different in those days —far less crowded. I travelled to Ahmedabad, met Doshi —who had worked with Le Corbusier— and together we went to Chandigarh,” says Maki, fondly recalling his only meeting with the high priest of modern architecture.

After establishing his now prestigious firm Maki & Associates in Tokyo in 1965, Maki received grand commissions in the US inlcuding the fourth tower of the World Trade Centre, New York. His designs in Japan reflect a cultural rooted-ness, using the Japanese love for translucence through layers of glass inducing a feel of traditional Shoji Screens. Cramped Tokyo does not show in his work as he weaves vast expanses and carefully landscaped gardens in his structures. “The most important thing is the people, common people. If they feel comfortable in the structures you have created, then you have succeeded,” he affirms.

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