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
Matt Shaw, The New York Times
Published: 01 Jan 2021 01:57 PM BdST
Updated: 01 Jan 2021 01:57 PM BdST Louis Kahn Plaza on the IIM Ahmedabad s Heritage Campus. (The Photography Club, IIM Ahmedabad/Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)
A world-class architectural-preservation controversy is brewing in India, where the administration at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad had announced plans to raze 14 of 18 student dormitory buildings designed by architect Louis Kahn and built in the 1960s and 1970s. );
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After a local and international outcry, an online meeting to begin seeking new bids for the demolition was cancelled.
Kahn, one of the most important American architects in history, is best known for masterworks like the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as the Philips Exeter Academy Library in Exeter, New Hampshire, and the First Unitarian Chu