New Delhi: The proposal from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad to tear down buildings on the heritage campus designed by famous architect Louis Kahn and replace them with new buildings has caused quite a stir.
The rationale for the proposal is that the 18 student dormitories, built in the 1960s, have suffered structural damage over the years, including during the 2001 earthquake, the Indian express reported.
The new hostel complex is also expected to house 800 rooms for students, while the existing buildings could only house 500 students.
Architecture experts, students and faculty are infuriated by the administration’s decision to tear down Kahn’s iconic work on campus.
The decision to raze the hostel was made despite Mumbai-based Somaya and Kalappa Consultants (SNK) already working to restore the existing dormitories, along with the Vikram Sarabhai Library, faculty and administrative blocks and buildings. classrooms, based on a quiz. won in 2014. The firm also won a UNESCO award for library restoration work last year.
“I was not aware of the new offer,” one of SNK’s founders told the Indian express.
Following the scandal over the decision to tear down the buildings, an online meeting to open the new tenders was suspended. In an eleven-page letter, justifying the institute’s decision to tear down the old buildings, to former students, Principal Errol D’Souza said that the existing structure was “uninhabitable” with “concrete and slabs falling from the roofs with damaging consequences for residents’ lives ”.
“The existing bedrooms (D-1 to 18) built between 1968 and 1978 have multiple problems such as leaks in the ceiling, humidity in the walls, leaks in the walls of the bathrooms, etc. In addition, the 2001 earthquake caused significant structural damage. IIMA tried to restore a dormitory building in 2017, but the results were not satisfactory. Therefore, it has been decided to create student housing using the existing footprints (parcel of land) of these dormitory buildings, ”stated IIMA in the document inviting Expression of Interest in the project.
D’Souza also questioned the exposed brick structure of Kahn’s firm and rated the bricks deficient. Because no concrete siding was used to protect the rebar embedded in the brick, the bars rusted and the brick cracked, he said in his letter.
D’Souza also wondered if it was “appropriate … to colonize future perceptions of living spaces.”
“We have faced questions about why we should assume that the past is unchanging and why we should assume that future generations will value things in exactly the same way as past generations,” D’Souza said, adding: “In the In today’s world, our experience is that students hardly use these shared spaces, since they have gravitated towards virtual modes “.
“One of the main problems is that the cultural heritage associated with the campus will be lost. We can understand that they are doing this due to the increase in the number of students, but eliminating them will also mean losing the social and cultural aesthetics of the campus, ”said an IIM-A faculty member.
Kahn has been revered as one of the greatest architects of the 20th century and is credited with creating powerful and evocative compositions of geometry and space. Some of his most famous works, exemplifying his unique style, include the Salk Institute and the Yale University Art Gallery.
Kahn first came to India in 1962 at the invitation of the director and founder of IIM-A, Vikram Sarabhai, as a consultant to the National Institute of Design.
“The IIM-A revived a prestigious UNESCO award for the preservation of the Vikram Sarabhai Library. The award also highlighted the school’s commitment to its architectural heritage as a model for India. It is a bitter irony to see the administration turn its back on its own achievements. The school and the dormitories are one unit. Take one away and the magic dissipates, never to return, ”said William Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, which manages the Kahn archives.
“Kahn was always looking for the roots of institutions… In this case, it was an institution of learning. He viewed each student as a disciple. That value was enshrined in all the bedrooms, where 10 of them lived together. Outside of their classrooms, the bedrooms were a space where people could come together to share ideas, without any sense of exclusivity, ”said Rabindra Vasavada, one of the first architects to join Kahn as an assistant in the 1960s.
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