Edwin Landseer Lutyens; Source: Wikipedia

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Edwin Landseer Lutyens, a name which any Delhiite of today might know, was born on the 29th of March, 1869. His pioneering architectural works along with Herbet Baker in India, and other places around the world would be well-admired in his home country and the recipient countries of his architecture. For his techniques adapted traditional motifs and styles and brought them to the 20th century, so to say.

Lutyens would begin his practice in 1888, designing small homes in England and known for his garden-making technique, a proto-version of what was to appear as the English Garden later on. *Country Life*, a magazine, published numerous of his house designs, and Lutyens kept getting the fame.

As the 19th century passed into the 20th one, he would be increasingly recognised as the next generation of architects, especially domestic ones. His strength was combining the Tudor imperial architecture of England with vernacular styles found in various English regions. 

> As such, he would also come into contact with numerous  styles of the Indian subcontinent - with the Mughal water gardens giving him inspiration for the kinds of houses he would design.

While he was knighted for his works like the various WW1 memorials around the United Kingdom, his magnum opus would lay in the design of the capital city of British India, New Delhi. From 1912-1930, he would be involved as the chief architect of the place - where European classical architecture merged with Mughal and pre-Mughal Indic styles to create buildings now marvelled, such as the Viceroy House, the Secretariat, the Parliament, various garden lined bungalows, etc.

He would not be particularly fond of Indians - but he would be fond of their architecture, and would dutifully try to show the English as just another empire coming to India, by blending its styles with the native ones.

Sir Edwin Lutyens, responsible for designing the buildings of what is today known as New Delhi in the 1930s, was born today in 1869.