Eulie Chowdhury Biography 
Eulie Chowdhury was a leading Indian architect who was active in her field in the second half of 1900s, i.e, in the post-independent era. She was also the first female architect in Asia, and a pioneer architect in India among her contemporaries too. General architecture, landscape architecture and design were her major fields of interest and she also served as a teacher, and writer. In 1983, she established the Alliance Française de Chandigarh. She wrote many columns in Progressive Architecture, Architectural Design and Casabella, and many other leading magazines. She also wrote a column titled Sinners and Winners in the Saturday supplement of The Tribune. She was included in the team, which designed Chandigarh city since early 1950s.
Urmila Eulie Chowdhury was born in 1923 in Shahjehanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Her father was a diplomat. She studied architecture at the University of Sydney. Her husband Jugal Kishore Chowdhary worked as a consulting architect with the Government of Punjab. During her active years, she belonged to the very small group of female architects among Asians. However some sources credit her as the first woman architect in Asia. She returned to India in 1951, and since then she has been active in her profession as an architect.
She was included in the team which was assigned the planning the design and construction of Chandigarh during 1951–63 and 1968–70, in the post-independent era. She was also associated with the planning of Chandigarh’s architecture during 1971 - 1976. In a short break from this assignment, in between 1963 and 1965, she served as Director of the School of Architecture of Delhi. She was Chief State Architect of Haryana in 1970 and Punjab from 1976 to 1981.
Published: October 16, 2018
Updated: October 16, 2018
