The construction of Rashtrapati Bhavan photo taken by A. G. Shoosmith, Edwin Lutyens's representative in New Delhi, where he worked from 1920-1931 Shoosmith went out to India in 1920 to be Edwin Lutyens’ permanent representative in New Delhi. When the new capital was rising, Lutyens and Herbert Baker only went out for a couple of months each winter while the permanent representative was on the spot all year round, and Shoosmith’s job was to supervise the construction of Viceroy’s House
Photo taken by A. G. Shoosmith ,Russian-born English architect. He worked in India from 1920 to 1931, supervising the building of Lutyens's Viceroy's House in New Delhi as Lutyens representative in India .This is part of a collection of unpublished photographs that have been kept in the Shoosmith family are taken from the original negatives & carefully restored .Further photos are currently being restored & will be added to the Alamy Archive . Lutyens then recommended him for the job of designing a new garrison church, dedicated to St Martin, to be built in the military cantonments way out to the west of Delhi. Shoosmith decid-ed to build in brick and reinforced concrete, facing the exterior with special two-inch locally made red bricks – million of them. Construction began in 1929. The previous year, Lutyens had offered him some useful and revealing advice: ‘My Dear Shoo, Bricks! A building of one material is for some strange reason much more noble than one of many. It may be the accent it gives of sincerity, the persistence of texture and definite unity. […] Don’t use, whatever you do, bricks on edge or any fancy stuff. It only destroys scale and promotes triviality […] The Romans did it! Why should not Britons? You will get a fine wall, and their mass, proportion, with precious fenestration, will do the rest.’
Size: 4789px × 3600px
Location: New Delhi 1920s
Photo credit: © A G Shoosmith New Delhi / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architect, arthur, bhavan, british, building, construction, delhi, delhi., edwin, gordon, india, landseer, lutyens, official, palace, palace., rashtrapati, residence, shooosmith, shoosmith, viceroys
