The Lutyens Trust (an educational charity which acts as a source of information and help on the care and maintenance of the works of Sir Edwin Lutyens) undertook its first official visit to India in September 1998, with a group of eighteen architects and architectural historians, to look at the known works by Sir Edwin. In October 2003 a party of forty returned to concentrate on the New Delhi projects and now in October 2007 a group of sixty, including six members of the Lutyens family, will be arriving for the opening of the exhibition, “Rashtrapati Bhavan in Context: The Work of Sir Edwin Lutyens O.M.”

In 2002 INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) published a Charter describing how Lutyens’ Delhi is seriously threatened by development. S. K. Misra, Vice-Chairman of INTACH, realizing that the 2003 visit would highlight the importance of Lutyens’ Delhi, arranged meetings with Shri A P J Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, Shri Jagmohan, the then Government Minister for Culture and Tourism, Smt. Sheila Dixit Chief Minister of Delhi, H.H. the Maharajah of Patiala, the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Chairman of INTACH.

During this visit, coinciding with the launch of A Capital Story, an INTACH publication for children on the building of New Delhi, a forum was held in a densely packed auditorium at the India International Centre, where lectures were themed around the recommendations of INTACH’s Charter on Lutyens’ Delhi. It was obvious that there was a growing body of enlightened conservationists and local citizens campaigning to save New Delhi from potential destruction. At this forum, it was suggested that an exhibition on Lutyens should be created to show how New Delhi came to be designed, putting it into a world historical design context.

Margaret Richardson, Honorary Curator of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts and Former Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, offered to curate the exhibition with Paul Waite, Architectural Historian and Lutyens Trust Trustee. Creating the exhibition has involved co-operation between The Lutyens Trust, the British Council, the British High Commission, INTACH, the Office of the President of India and the Government of India.

The original concept developed into a photographic exhibition with an overall aim to show the significant buildings, gardens and details that led up to New Delhi, as well as Sir Edwin’s designs that followed this period and which reflect many of the ideas generated by building in India. The Rashtrapati Bhavan is seen to be the climax of his work as an architect but he did push further ahead in terms of innovation with the abstraction of the Cenotaph and war memorials. Both his earlier and later works are illustrated.

The exhibition has three key themes: Lutyens as a planner – in terms of cities, houses and gardens; Lutyens as an architect – his buildings, his way of building; Lutyens as a craftsman – by showing details.

Although the centerpiece is the Rashtrapati Bhavan and its immediate surroundings, Sir Edwin’s gardens and Garden City designs feature in the exhibition. Key houses, major Government and Corporate work are also included. The exhibition is sponsored by BP and The Lutyens Trust. www.lutyenstrust.org.uk.