Christopher Charles Benninger

Born in the USA in 1942, Prof. Christopher Charles Benninger lived and worked in India from the early seventies. He studied City Planning at MIT and Architecture at Harvard University. As an institution builder he founded the School of Urban Planning at CEPT, Ahmedabad in 1971 along with Balkrishna Doshi, there after founded Centre for Development Studies in Pune, India (1976) involving him in rural development, preparation of city and urban plans for many cities in India such as Thane, Kalyan and towns in Asia. He won the Designer of the Year award (1999) and American Institute of Architects/ Architectural Record Award: 2000 for his design of the Mahindra United World College of India. He was awarded ‘the Golden Architect of the year Award’ instituted by A+D magazine in the Year 2007. He was conferred the Great Master Architect Award in 2008.The firm’s projects have been finalists in the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2001) and the World Architecture Awards UK. (2002, 2009). Several of his projects won A+D award, AYA awards, IIA awards and Archidesign awards. The firm’s work has been published in many international and national books and magazines. Christopher Benninger passed away in Pune, India, on October 2, 2024, after a prolonged battle with cancer.