Uttam Chand Jain is an Indian architect born in 1934 who received honors from IIT Kharagpur in 1958. He established his own practice in 1961 and has designed many institutional, commercial, and residential buildings. His designs reflect the local heritage and use local materials like sandstone. Some of his notable projects include the Jodhpur University campus buildings and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Research and Development which feature courtyard planning and minimize heat through thick walls. He emphasizes contextually appropriate designs and minimizing the use of steel and cement.
2. • Uttam Chand was born in 1934 in
Melwara, Rajasthan.
• He completed his schooling at jodhpur
Rajasthan.
• He graduated in architecture with I
class honors in 1958 at Indian institute
of technology, Kharagpur where he
was a merit scholar throughout.
• Soon after receiving advance study
scholarship from national university of
Tucumen , Argentina proceeded to
Latin America where for two years he
studied and gained experience .
• Established his own architecture
practice in 1961.
3. • Handled institutional buildings, commercial complexes, recreational facilities, tourists
projects, luxury hotels, theaters, housing, private residences, and university campus
layout.
• Taught at various architectural colleges and been examiner at university of Bombay,
Punjab university, Chandigarh, Baroda university; Ahmadabad school of architecture
and school of planning and architecture, New Delhi.
• He served on jury of national competitions in architecture on many occasions.
Education
• 1958 Graduated in Architecture (B.Arch.) with 1st Class Honors on a scholarship from
I.I.T Kharagpur, West Bengal
• 1958-59Advanced study scholarship from the National University of Tucuman,
Argentina
Professional Practice
1961 to date : In private practice
4. PHILOSOPHY
His buildings reflect the heritage of that particular place.
• He is not much bothered about the trends and always try to conceive the building in
his own style .
• The various projects he has undertaken since then reflect the consistent contextually
inherit in his design philosophy.
ACIEVEMENTS
• First achievement was in 1969 common wealth institute of architects, London awarded
prize in India essay competitions.
• In 1973 he won first prize in all India architectural competition sponsored by
government of Goa for memorial design.
• He was listed as one of the three Indian architects among 200 contemporary worlds
architects by Japan architects , Tokyo in 1977.
• In 1978 Washington university USA invited him to speak at their Tuesday lecture
series on “a contemporary architecture of the past”.
5. UNIVERSITY OF JODHPUR CAMPUS
• Lecture theater – 1971 (680 sqm
• Building is made with golden colored
sandstone with which the traditional
buildings of jodhpur have been constructed.
• Steel and cement are used only minimally in
this cost effective design
• Walls are of dressed masonry laid in lime
mortar, standard 3.5meter long stone slabs.
• The university buildings are widely dispersed
all over the campus ,three buildings – the
faculty of arts and social sciences, the
central lecture theater cluster and the
campus canteen – stand out among them .
• The building is constructed with a double
wall to counter the hot and desert climate of
the desert.
• The outer wall screens the sun and are
rhythmic in pattern .
6. •Lecture theatre –cluster is a small ziggurat like
structure mirroring the inclined seating in each of
its four identical halls.
•Each is a simple rectangle in plan supported by
two parallel walls along its longer axis .
•A stone pergola screens the central node at
which all the four theaters emerge.
•Approach is through a ramp framed between two
lecture theater..
•The canteen – comprises of shared kitchen and
service areas with separate dining facilities for
students and teachers .
• The staff area is a small mezzanine that
overlooks the larger student dining hall below .
•It is reached by an open staircase rising from
the entrance court .
7. Printing press
• Similar to the lecture theatre it has stepped profile .
• This allows the light to enter in the central space.
• It also has a steeped entrance which is clearly
visible.
• Like other buildings of the campus it also made of
locally available sandstone.
• The east west façade is made of dead wall to cut of
the heat of sun.
8. DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
• This department has a very simple u-shaped plan with a central courtyard
planning.
• Made of locally available sand stone with thick walls of lime construction.
• On the ground floor there are all the faculty offices, and some of the lecture rooms.
• Mainly the lecture rooms are on the first floor.
• Enough space is left for future expansion.
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY
• Similar in plan, simple with colonnaded corridors
LIBRARY BUILDING
• Library building is a simple rectangular Greek cross.
• In this building U.C.Jain has achieved minimum distance between readers and the
books.
• As he has places the stacks in central area on the mezzanine floor ,along with
other circulation elements.
• And the reading areas are placed in all the four l-shaped halls , which receive
sufficient ambient light.
• Building made of golden sandstone matches the surrounding.
9. INDIRA GANDHI INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
• In this building the main concept which the
architect has achieved is “darkness to light”
there is a main entrance gate which leads to sun
deck. The corridors open up into the courtyards.
• On the entrance wall there is an inviting mural.
• The basic planning is the courtyard planning.
• The site on which building stands is sloping and
hence the building follows the topography of the
site .
• Another thing which is achieved in this building
is the restricted motion, major areas of
maximum movement are kept near to the
entrance and the research labs are kept at the
farthest point from the entrance thus minimizing
the movement.
10. • The campus comprises of two zones- the institutional and residential.
• The buildings are low-profiled masses, that are loosely connected to merge with
surroundings, interlinked by pneumatic connectors.
11. PLAN
• The institutional spaces consist
of an auditorium, a computer
room, a research wing, an
administration block, a
recreation hall and a service
core.
• The residential accommodation
caters to the needs of the staff,
researchers and visiting
scholars.
12. To give a handicraft look to the complex, natural materials and the maximum
possible manual labor have been used.
OBEYING THE NATURAL TOPOGRAPHY
13. To respond to hot and humid
climate, a series of paper-thin
sections have been designed
through the double skin principle.
The barrel vault evokes the elemental vaulted roofs
of the caves.
