Tropical Modernism is an architectural style. But it’s also intimately connected to postcolonial independence and nation-building – in India and Ghana and far beyond. And it’s being reevaluated in contemporary architecture, especially in the context of the climate emergency. Its legacies and meanings are very much alive.
One section of this new show at the V&A, that focuses on those two countries, looks at the truncated pyramids designed as exhibition halls by Raj Rewal in New Delhi in 1972, with pioneering “space frame” structures in reinforced concrete, allowing for gloriously open interiors. Rewal’s buildings symbolised the secular, progressive ethos of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who explicitly demanded that his vision be expressed in modern buildings.
