“Sit under a tree and think…” Swapnil Suresh Joshi’s tribute to his teacher—Christopher Charles Benninger

In 2008, when I was in my first year of architecture, Ar. Hafeez Contractor was invited for a presentation of his works at FEED, Pune, where after the presentation I asked him a few stupid questions. Maybe my questions were too prejudiced coloured by reading Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead, idolizing Howard Roark as the ideal architect. Christopher was sitting in the first row, to whom I went to talk after the presentation. Perhaps he knew I was the same kid who had asked those questions so he drew a tree and wrote next to it “Sit under a tree and think” before undersigning it in my notebook. I realized maybe it was too early for me to judge and form fixed opinions without giving enough thought to things; after all, I was just in my first year. 

Next year I attended a session on slum rehabilitation organized at the Centre for Development Studies & Activities (CDSA), Pune, for my seniors from 3^rd year. I didn’t understand a thing about the topic of discussion but the place had a profound impression on me. The campus is inconspicuous and one misses it most often while travelling from that road. Except for a few free-standing stone masonry walls and CDSA sign hidden behind dense trees and vegetation, there is no trace of the campus.

Even after entering the main gate, one questions whether one is at the right place. On the left, one sees a few open steps that abruptly end. Beyond, one gets a glimpse amidst tall trees of a tall tower reminiscing of stone church bell towers found in Deccan and particularly in Pune. On the right, a meandering pathway takes us around an earth mound covered with indigenous grass to the first signs of a settlement-like cluster of buildings. One can either enter the front lobby and reception or to the plaza defined by a set of single-storied stone masonry structures with sloping roofs. One realizes why Christopher must have placed the earthen mound where he did only when one discovers that amazing plaza.

Aneeta Benninger, his wife and also my teacher, once told me that after an intense discussion between herself, Christopher, and her father on what material to use for construction, she convinced both of them to use stone. Christopher wanted to use exposed brick instead of stone like in CEPT, Ahmedabad, and her father too endorsed it as he felt stone would feel like a jail (Aneeta Benninger’s father was a prominent Communist leader who had experienced the environs of a jail during the freedom struggle). That one design decision changed completely the atmosphere of the campus.

Like Salk Institute’s Plaza must be as much credited to Louis Barragan as Louis Kahn, the credit for using Deccan basalt instead of brick must be shared by both Christopher as well as Aneeta Benninger. CDSA is one of the only educational institutions that I know where urban agriculture and forestry is practised and integrated as a landscape on campus.  

I had the good fortune to study post-graduation in CDSA, where Christopher taught us Urban Economics. Christopher would come to the campus once a week. Despite being extremely busy with his projects, I’ve never seen him unprepared, unsure and blabbering his way out of a lecture. He was extremely well-prepared and clear as to what he was to teach that particular day.

By the end of our semester, he ended up writing a book on the delivered lecture notes titled ‘Urban Economics: The Livelihoods of Households, Cities, and Nations.’ The book also included each student’s essay. It is one of the prized unpublished possessions that I have in my collection. He taught us some of the prominent urban planning and economic concepts and theories, viz., Dual Society, Trickle Down Effect, Take-Off Theory, Unearned Increment, Creative Destruction, Prime Pumping, Tragedy of the Commons, etc. relating them to Pune and other cities that we were familiar with. In one of the sessions, he taught us the importance of identifying patterns as planners and the difference between types, facts, ideas, and concepts.  

‘If a pattern is more persistent, it is based on facts, ideas, and concepts… However, we have to know what is unique or special about that case and not generalize into prototypes or patterns that are not reasonable extensions of logic of that case. These odd details are idiosyncratic and as planners, we must remove idiosyncratic material and look for “structures” … When we are looking at a pattern, we are seeing in that pattern some organizational principle that provides scientific unity and coherence… Design patterns are proposed answers to questions; are solutions to problems.’ (CDSA Lecture Notes, May 2015, unpublished) 

One day Christopher stated that the Garden City concept by Ebenezer Howard was derived from Howard’s study of India’s cantonment areas. I don’t know if he eventually backed it with substantive evidence but this, I then thought, could be a huge discovery and change the way we think about our own history.

I recently read an article by Professor Sathya Prakash Varanashi published by ArchitectureLive! titled “Designing for Modern India: The Legacy of Christopher Benninger” where he says, “…if we randomly put together two of his projects, especially the early and later one, they may not appear like the product of the same brain.” I agree with Professor Varanashi here but I wonder why Christopher transitioned from his early practice that had a strong contextual and regionalist approach to a more apparently ‘non-regionalist’ (for lack of a better word) one?

I think it was a conscious transformation of his practice and not circumstantial. It becomes evident when one views the choice of projects he presented at Z-Axis in 2015. When Christopher arrived in India, India was still in the phase of rebuilding its identity as a new and young nation where architects like Correa, Doshi, etc. were reinterpreting India’s past while embracing the modernist language. Christopher’s early projects were, as one part, a response to that identity rebuilding of modern India by responding to the rich heritage of India and as the other part, his fascination and awe of this ancient land.

Through projects such as Azim Premji University and IIT Hyderabad, Christopher may well be searching for an architecture of a new India that is not always referenced to its past. In short, I think while his early projects were responding to the rich past of India, his later projects were searching for the future architecture of new 21^st-century India. 

As a teacher, Christopher was more interested in teaching without overly romanticizing the student-teacher relationship. Perhaps this attitude comes from his American roots. As Indians and as a young teacher myself, we tend to get easily attached to our students bringing in an emotional quotient which is quite unnecessary. Perhaps, precisely because of this attitude, Christopher did not create disciples; he did not create his copies. 

‘Where do we touch their lives and what are our limitations to change them? What small gifts can we give them along the way? At some juncture of their journey can we make a small impact? Can we do this without becoming involved with students, as their friends and as their confidants? Can we leave personalities and campus politics out of all of this? Can we see the strong points of even our weakest colleagues and help them to be better teachers, instead of ridiculing them? Can we keep the distance of a wise guide and still pass on values, inspirations, sensitivities and understanding?’ (Benninger Christopher C., Letter 4, An Uncertain Journey: The Education of an Architect, Letters to a Young Architect: pg. 67) 

A very close group was aware of Christopher’s illness and when I wished him to get well soon in March this year, he downplayed it by saying, “Lovely to hear from you! Where do you work? I’m down with a fever.” That was my last interaction with him.  

Every time in the past I visited CDSA it gave me the ‘sense’ of Christopher although he was hardly there on campus. Whenever I visit CDSA in the future, Christopher’s ‘absence’ will be felt even more strongly. 

I will end with an interaction he had with a wise sage at Mount Abu that he has mentioned in the Prologue of his book. The sage told Christopher that he was a person of little wealth but of great fortune. Christopher asked him what he meant by good luck. The sage told him that there is only one kind of good luck and that is to have great teachers. 

Thank you, Christopher, for bringing luck to me. 

Feature Image: Courtesy of CCBA