Of the many reasons for choosing to be an architect, a fascination with model trains – laying out the track and building the terrain – is not the obvious one. But Charles Correa, India’s most influential contemporary architect, who died in 2015 AD after an incredible career and brief illness, once claimed that’s how his interest began.

Born in 1930 in Secunderabad, Correa took his first degree in design at the University of Bombay (the Raj still being in place), and went on to study at the University of Michigan (1949-1953) and MIT (1953-1955). He returned to India in 1958 to open his own architectural firm in Mumbai (Bombay’s name having been changed when the British pulled out). The first structure to bring him attention outside India was the Gandhi Ashram – a grouping of brick and stone pavilions celebrating the life of the hero, completed in 1963.

Blending traditional materials with modern designs, Correa made a name for himself with designs for a “tube house” in Ahmedabad, the Sonmarg apartments, the towering Kanchenjunga highrise, and the stunning Bharat Bhavan Art Centre in Bhopal, among many other buildings. From 1970 through 1975 he was the Chief Architect overseeing the construction of the planned city of Navi Mumbai (home to 1.17 million in 2011). Carrying on with his interest and leadership in urban planning and low-cost housing in Third World nations, while protecting the environment and using native materials, in 1984 Correa founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay, which carries on his legacy.