Arun Kumar Chatterjee was an Indian architect and educator born in 1927 in Nagpur, India. Prior to joining to the Architectural Association, which he seems to have attended at a late stage of his career, Chatterjee was an established lecturer and served as the Principal in Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai, India (1965-74). He appears to have had an early education in the UK, completing a course on Workshop Engineering from the Country Technical College in Stafford, in 1953. It is not know to us where his undergraduate architecture studies were completed but in August 1960 he arrived in New York, from Paris, and enrolled on a MArch course at Remselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, graduating in 1961 -- his thesis entitled “India’s Quest for Public Housing.” Chatterjee has been listed in the “Eminent Educationist of India” 1969 publication and is the author of the book “Contemporary Urban Architecture” (1977) focusing on Bombay. Half way through his stint as the Principal of the Sir JJ College of Architecture, Chatterjee decided to take time out to study on the 1969-70 postgraduate course run by the Architectural Association’s Department of Development and Tropical Studies, in London. His late-career attendance at the AA might be explained by the recommendation by India’s Board of Technical Studies in Architecture and Regional Planning that “one member of the teaching staff from each of the recognized institutions conducting Architectural & Town-Planning Courses of degree or equivalent standard may be sponsored for training in the London School of Architecture for refresher training of about 6 months in tropical architecture." (IIA Annual Report 1958-59). He passed away in 1997.
Sources:
Architectural Association Student Register 1945‐1972, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1964-75, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Student Records Microfiche Files, 1968-1973, AA Archives
- The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 2848504; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: A3998; NARA Roll Number: 356
- Staffordshire Newsletter [UK], Saturday 05 September 1953
- IIA Annual Report 1958-59, Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, vol., 25, no. 3 (July-Sep. 1959)
- Eminent Educationists of India, Volume 1, 1969 (published by National Book Organization)
- “Contemporary urban architecture : a design approach : a study of Bombay”, A. K. Chatterjee, Delhi : Macmillan Co. of India, 1977
- Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, Volume 62, Page 21, 1997
