Controversy has arisen over the decision of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to tear down 18 student residences built by legendary American architect Louis Kahn on the old campus, also called “heritage campus”, and replace them with new buildings.
The plan to replace the buildings, built in the 1960s, with new ones is based on their having suffered structural damage over the years, including the 2001 earthquake. The new buildings are also expected to accommodate more students; Instead of the existing dormitories, which can accommodate 500 students, the plan is to build 800 student rooms in a new hostel complex.
The decision was made even as Mumbai-based Somaya and Kalappa Consultants (SNK) was already working on the restoration of existing dormitories, along with the Vikram Sarabhai library, faculty and administrative blocks, and classroom buildings, based on a contest he had won. in 2014. Last year, the firm won a UNESCO award for library restoration work.
Somaya, one of the founders of SNK, confirmed to The Indian Express: “I was not aware of the new offer”
Amid the uproar over the IIM-A decision, an online meeting scheduled for Thursday to open the new offerings was postponed.
Justifying the decision to tear down the dormitories, IIM-A director, Professor Errol D’Souza, wrote an 11-page letter to alumni of the institute on Wednesday, citing multiple problems in the existing structure that made it “uninhabitable.” among them “concrete and falling slabs from the roofs with harmful consequences for the lives of the neighbors.”
The IIM-Ahmedabad dormitory. (Express photo: Nirmal Harindran)
When contacted with questions about the decision, D’Souza told The Indian Express: “I wrote to the alumni yesterday. The queries you have raised are answered in that letter. “
Yet architecture experts, students, and faculty are enraged that Kahn’s iconic campus work should be shot down.
Revered as one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, Kahn is known for creating powerful and evocative compositions of geometry and space. The IIM-A campus is a brick choreography of form, light and shadow.
Kahn, who first came to India in 1962 at the invitation of IIM-A director and founder Vikram Sarabhai, as a consultant to the National Institute of Design, gave his buildings a balance that few could achieve at the time.
His work, whether it be the Salk Institute in California, the Kimbell Museum in Texas, or the Phillips Exeter Academy Library and Dining Room in New Hampshire, allowed people to explore quiet corners in the spaces in between.
William Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania which administers the Kahn archives, said: “The IIM-A revived a prestigious UNESCO award for Library preservation. Vikram Sarabhai. 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. “
Architecture experts, students and faculty are enraged that Kahn’s iconic campus work should be shot down. (Express photo: Nirmal Harindran)
Rabindra Vasavada, one of the first architects to join Kahn as an assistant in the 1960s, calls the idea of demolishing the bedrooms an erasure of history itself.
“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, ”says Vasavada.
In his letter to the group of former students, D’Souza had wondered, however, whether 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 continued, adding: ” In today’s world, our experience is that students hardly use these shared spaces as they have gravitated towards virtual modes. “
Ahmedabad architect Riyaz Tayabji said: “These are buildings of great architectural sophistication. His sheer frugality in a time of scarce resources showed us that great architecture is not a luxury, but can be achieved with the most scarce resources. “
One IIM-A faculty member said: “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. “
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