New research: The Bombay School of Architecture and the Royal Institute of British Architects (1917–1948)

Zamarian, Patrick. (2025). The Bombay School of Architecture and the Royal Institute of British Architects (1917–1948). Fabrications, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/10331867.2025.2528267

In the early twentieth century, Bombay (now Mumbai) emerged as the largest and commercially most important city in what was then British India. With its rapid urban development offering opportunities for professional architects, the city produced the country’s first school of architecture, instituted in 1913 and, in terms of student numbers, soon among the largest such institutions in the British world. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) meanwhile claimed to promote and coordinate the training of architects across the British Empire. Using a broad range of archival records, government reports, and contemporary periodicals, this article traces the relations between the Bombay School of Architecture and the RIBA, which began during the First World War and ended following India’s independence. It argues that throughout this period the school was driven by its efforts to attain the RIBA’s “recognition,” which ultimately foundered on the RIBA’s intransigence. In contrast to its handling of schools in the settler colonies, the RIBA insisted on unrealistic metropolitan standards from the Bombay School. I therefore contend that the RIBA did not in fact pursue a coherent imperial policy; its lofty rhetoric notwithstanding, the RIBA’s role in coordinating architectural education beyond Great Britain remained limited.

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