Saving the modernist architecture of Louis Kahn’s IIM Ahmedabad dormitories
Saving the modernist architecture of Louis Kahn’s IIM Ahmedabad dormitories
Noor Dasmesh Singh (architect, urbanist and principal of award-winning NOOR Architects Consultants based in Chandigarh, India) discusses the threat posed to the dormitories at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Louis Kahn’s modernist architecture
Louis Kahn was invited to design IIM-A in 1962
As a World Heritage preservation controversy brews, the administration at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIM-A), just a short time ago, was set to proceed with its plans to raze 14 out of the 18 dormitories in Louis Kahn’s modernist architecture complex for the Indian school. A row kicked off as the design community and citizens initiated a campaign against the decision of the management. It got support from global organisations and individuals including Pritzker Prize laureates, the Council of Architecture in India, MoMA and the World Monuments Fund. Consequently, the management decided to put the demolition on pause for now.