A Pre-history of Green Architecture: Otto Koenigsberger and Tropical Architecture, from Princely Mysore to Post-colonial London.

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigate how transcolonial histories of architecture intersect with transnational environmental histories of architecture. I locate Tropical Architecture, which I define as climate-responsive and energy-conservative design, in the pre-history of environmentalism. I argue that the corpus of knowledge that developed through Tropical Architecture in the 1950’s constitutes the pre-cursor to Green Architecture. I locate Tropical Architecture as a trans-colonial set of architectural practices that originated in the colonial experiences of European modernist architects. As a crucial part of this hypothesis, I trace the career trajectory of émigré architect Otto Koenigsberger (1909-99), who escaped Nazi Berlin in 1933 to go to Egypt and subsequently immigrated to India in 1939. In India, Koenigsberger served as the chief architect for the Maharajah of Princely Mysore from 1939 to 1948 and as the Federal Director of Housing for Nehru’s government from 1948 to 1951. In 1951, he immigrated to London to become one of the founders of the Department of Tropical Architecture (1954-1971) at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture. I argue that working in exile in Princely Mysore fundamentally transformed Koenigsberger’s architectural thinking and practice. The most significant change in his thinking was his cognizance of the limits of resources and energy. Through his experience in Mysore, Koenigsberger theorized Tropical Architecture as a discourse that was climate responsive, energy conscious, and built with local resources. Existing histories locate Tropical Architecture as a neo-colonial project that emerged in the 1950s along the networks of the diminishing British Empire. I propose that Tropical Architecture embodied a vision of environmentalism. Green Architecture, which is considered a recent discourse, cannot therefore be fully grasped unless it is historicized in relationship to Tropical Architecture. The careers of tropical architects are the missing link between histories of architecture in the colonies and histories of Green Architecture. I make my argument by establishing continuities between Tropical and Green architectural practices and by demonstrating how people trained in Tropical Architecture made their careers in the field of Green Architecture.