Sarbjit Singh Bahga writes about Didi Contractor, a self-taught architect from Dharamshala, India, who made an indelible mark by challenging conventional norms and championed an eco-friendly approach to construction.
Geethu Gangadhar reviews the book ‘A Call to Return: A Journey with Didi Contractor’, compiled and edited by Lakshmi Swaminathan.
In an age where the mammoth, the huge, the colossal, and in the words of Rem Koolhass, “Biggness” is celebrated, and the monumental is the
Didi Contractor , an architect practicing in Himachal Pradesh, is one such lady who is inspiring many of us with her zeal and enthusiasm even now at the ripe age of 84. Didi came to India in 1950s did some interior designing and some building and most importantly brought up four children. It was only after her children grew up that she was able to shift to Kangra where, after some years, she started building in adobe. So, her serious architecture career began at 60 years of age!
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