1974. Completion
2020. 12. 4. IIMA Issues EOI for the Comprehensive Design of Student Housing on Old Campus
2020. 12. 22. Louis Kahn’s children sent 1st letter
2020. 12. 23. IIMA announced demolition plan of 14 buildings out of 18 student housing
2020. 12. 25. Prem Chandabarkar released 1st open letter ▶, 2nd (26th)
2020. 12. 26. Architectural Review published an article written by William Curtis who opposed to demolition
2020. 12. 27. ICOMOS India issued a letter ▶▶
2020. 12. 28. Architectural Review started a petition ▶▶▶
2020. 12. 30. Louis Kahn’s children sent 2nd letter ▶▶▶▶
2020. 12. 31. Sarosh Anklesaria submitted Expert Report ▶▶▶▶▶
2020. 12. 31. Glenn Lowry and Martino Stierli (MoMA) released a letter
2021. 1. 1. IIMA withdrew demolition plan
2021. 1. 7. Edmund Sumner, architectural photographer, shared images of IIMA in Dezeen
▶ From Prem Chandavarkarʼs 1st Open Letter
I am writing this open letter to articulate the deep concern felt by many architects and non- architects, from India and elsewhere in the world, on hearing that Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) plans to demolish most of the dormitory blocks designed by Louis Kahn that form a key part of the historic core of IIMA, and has invited bids from architects to redesign these dormitories, albeit in an architectural language sympathetic to the Kahn idiom.
You have said in your letter to alumni, ʻWe have grappled with questions as to why we should presume that the past is not changeable and why we should assume that future generations will value things in exactly the same way that past generations have. We wondered if it is appropriate for us to colonise future perceptions of living spaces’. Can awe and wonder colonise the future? Are they not timeless values that sustain the core of the human soul? I urge IIMA to not look at this as a conflict between past, present and future. Heritage is not solely about the preservation of the past. In its essence, heritage is a contemporary moment of critical discernment where we look at the past and carefully choose what is worth remembering because that memory will serve the future well. Surely, Kahn’s legacy is a past that does not degrade, and its continued physical presence, in all its authenticity, will serve the future well through the eternal values of awe and wonder that it evokes.
You state that three imperatives guided IIMA’s decision: (1) functional needs, (2) cultural heritage, and (3) available resources. But your letter throws no light on how you weighted these imperatives in your analysis, especially given the challenge of cultural heritage being the only one of the three whose value is almost wholly intangible. If it is primarily a matter of available resources, a value assigned to heritage would, at the very least, demand tabling an assessment of the resources needed for a complete restoration. And if there is a gap between needed and available resources, the question rises on whether IIMA made an effort to leverage its standing with government, its international reputation, its long list of illustrious alumni, and the global respect and affection granted to Louis Kahn and his designs for IIMA in order to raise the required resources. Your letter is silent on these aspects.
▶▶ ICOMOS Is Issuing Worldwide Heritage Alert
ICOMOS is issuing a worldwide Heritage Alert, our most consequential expressional of concern, to amplify awareness of the threat to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) Old Campus and draw urgent attention to the eminent risk of loss of the internationally significant buildings that make up the cultural landscape designed by Louis I. Kahn with his team of Indian architects and engineers.
The requirements for modern dormitories providing reasonable student comfort in the Old Campus, the pressures of additional housing to support Institute growth, the challenges of acquiring land for expansion and the responsibilities for the long-term maintenance of the Kahn buildings and other significant campus features are substantial, real and in fact not unusual pressures on the conservation of many historically significant properties. A Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan should not only address the conservation of the significant structures and features, but it should also address the current pragmatic issues identified above. Of critical importance is the approach to decision making regarding the future of the Old Campus. The IIMA is the steward of this unique asset, the Kahn Old Campus. To be proper stewards, the IIMA must place the identification, preservation, and conservation of the important attributes of the Old Campus as fundamental objective when establishing the long-term capacity, treatment, maintenance, and management of the Old Campus. This approach requires a team with conservation firm in the lead and with the values, knowledge, and experience to sensitively and appropriately address the modern-day pressures that precipitated the tender request while retaining and preserving the integrity of the Old Campus plan and buildings. This approach does not dictate that no changes are possible within the Kahn Old Campus. Rather, it establishes a use and design context and process for evaluating the scope and impact of possible and appropriate changes to meet Institute objectives within the historically significant Old Campus boundaries.
An original dormitory room in the University of Virginia Academic Village are today the residence of choice and a highest honor for a University of Virginia student. Not because the rooms are modern with all the features of a newly constructed dormitory but because of the intangible link to the values and heritage of the university that shapes a student’s life like few other experiences.
ICOMOS, through its International Scientific Committee on Twentieth Century Heritage, offers its full scope of expertise in support of preserving your exceptional Old Campus, an international icon.
▶▶▶ Petition by Architectural ReviewMid-December, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIMA) announced the decision to demolish 14 of the 18 dormitories on their campus designed by Louis Kahn.
The Architectural Review published an Outrage by William JR Curtis last week and Prem Chandavarkar drafted an open letter addressed to IIMA director Errol D’Souza, exposing the situation in great detail and asking for the decision to be reconsidered. Both texts insist on the cohesiveness and integrity of the campus, and the importance to preserve it as a whole. Kahn’s design is ʻembodied in a spatial order to be experienced, where the union of the academic block, library and dormitories create an intimate network of courtyards that, along with the buildings, capture the spirit of a monastic community of learners where knowledge is collectively held as sacred’ writes Chandavarkar, while Curtis adds that ʻthe suggestion that the library, administration and lecture hall can represent ʻheritage’ once the dormitories are demolished quite simply beggars belief’.
Indian laws stipulate that structures can only be qualified as ʻheritage’ if older than 100 years. Yet the successful restoration of IIMA’s library by Somaya & Kalappa (SNK) was recognised with an Award of Distinction in the 2019 UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards. Balkrishna Doshi said the building looks as good as new, and this distinction was seen by SNK and many others as a step in the right direction, raising awareness about the importance to preserve India’s modern heritage.
As articles condemning the planned demolition of IIMA dormitories are gathering momentum, the purpose of this petition is to show their widespread support and formalise a global demand: we want to ask for the decision to be reversed and for Louis Kahn’s dormitories to be saved from the wrecking ball. All 18 dormitories should be preserved and restored to meet the institution’s future needs. Please spread this message far and wide.
(About 25,000 participated in this petition.)▶▶▶▶ Louis Kahnʼs children released 2nd letter
At this time, we take heart in the values that bring us together and for the good work that continues— despite the pandemic. The Kahn family has been particularly grateful for the restoration you have been doing with Somaya & Kalappa Consultants of our father’s architecture at IIM Ahmedabad. The work completed to date has been exemplary, and we were thrilled to hear that the restoration of the Vikram Sarabhai Library received a well-deserved 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. We were also very encouraged by the successful renovation of dormitory D-15 as a first step in carrying out your stated plan to renovate all 18 dormitory buildings in addition to the Louis Kahn Plaza and the buildings flanking it. Imagine our shock and dismay upon hearing from multiple sources that this stated conservation plan had been abandoned and an EOI issued for the demolition of the 18 dormitories, to be replaced by new buildings. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this decision.
We were pleased to meet you at the University of Pennsylvania in the summer of 2018. We greatly enjoyed the meal we had together and the tour of the newly renovated and repurposed Richards Building. As you recall, the purpose of the visit to Richards was to see firsthand how a great Kahn building could be reimagined to suit changing needs. We might add that the Richards Building was also at one time in peril of demolition. It is now considered a very useful structure and a desirable address on campus.
At the time of your visit, you agreed to keep us apprised of progress at IIMA, and clearly made us all feel that you were interested in our assistance in thinking about the future of the Kahn buildings. You also indicated that you were committed to preserving, at the very least, the areas designated by the conservation plan, which included the 18 dormitories. We remain ready to help, and we ask that you please engage with us at this critical time. The Kahn dormitory buildings are magnificent works of art in their own right. There could be many ways to reimagine their uses if you are open to exploring the possibilities. For example, they might not all have to remain as dormitories. The exterior walls are loadbearing, and interiors could be sensitively reworked to suit alternative needs and uses. Errol, we feel you are a person of integrity. You agreed to continue a dialogue about our father’s great work in Ahmedabad. Please reconsider this precipitous decision. Allow us the opportunity to speak with you and the IIMA Board, so that options can be explored and this impending disaster can be averted.▶▶▶▶▶ Main figures in the list of Expert Report led by Sarosh Anklesaria
We would like to bring to your attention a letter signed by over 600 architects, and academics, many of international stature, representing 118 universities from over 30 nations. We believe the letter collectively embodies the voice and belief of the architecture and design profession. The letter states that the proposed demolition of the IIMA dormitories, will seriously damage the global reputation of IIMA. It would be an act of cultural vandalism. The letter calls upon IIMA to embrace a comprehensive plan for conservation of the entire old campus, and lead the conservation efforts of modernist architecture, by way of example. Signatories include eminent architects, deans, heads of departments, noted scholars, professors, journalists and historians in architecture and related disciplines encompassing 34 universities from the United States, 18 from the United Kingdom, 13 from India, as well as representations from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand.
We beseech you in the strongest terms possible to reconsider your decision. These buildings represent the finest examples of the late work of Louis Kahn and demolishing them amounts to an act of cultural vandalism. It seriously jeopardizes the legacy of Louis Kahn and of modernist architecture, especially in the Indian subcontinent, where there is a dire need for the conservation of modernist heritage.
As an ensemble, the built fabric of the IIMA campus has continued to generate attention and study in classrooms and architecture offices around the world, with architects, students, and tourists coming to study the work in person. Together, these buildings mark an important phase of post-independence institution building across India and the subcontinent. Various institutions with aging modernisms are looking up to IIMA to lead by way of example.
1. B.V. Doshi, Pritzker Laureate 2018, Padma Bhushan 2020, Ahmedabad, India
2. Rafael Moneo, Architect, Pritzker Laureate, 1996, Emeritus Josep Lluís Sert Professor in Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Spain
3. Juhani Pallasmaa, Architect, Writer, Professor Emeritus, Helsinki, Finland
4. Alejandro Aravena, Executive Director ELEMENTAL, Pritzker Laureate, 2016, Chile
5. Peter Rich, Noted Architect, Professor of Architecture, Johannesburg, South Africa
6. Neelkanth Chhaya, Former Dean, Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India
7. A. G. Krishna Menon, Architect and Conservation Consultant, New Delhi, India
8. Marcos Mazari Hiriart, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), President, Mexican Association of Institutions for Architectural Education (ASINEA) and President, the Latin American Union of Schools and Faculties of Architecture (UDEFAL), Mexico
9. Richard A Engelhardt, UNESCO Chair Professor of Culture Heritage Management; UNESCO Senior Advisor for Culture and World Heritage; Founder and Jury Chair UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Awards
10. Rabindra Vasavada, Noted Conservation Architect and Historian, Ahmedabad, India
11. Reinhold Martin, Scholar, Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, Director of The Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture and the History and Theory Curriculum, New York, USA
12. Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA/ Mumbai, India
13. Nader Tehrani, Noted Architect and Dean, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, New York, USA
14. Tatjana Schneider, Professor for the History and Theory of Architecture and the City, TU Braunschweig, Germany
15. Aldo Aymonino, Full Professor of Architectural and Urban Design, Iuav University of Venice, Venice, Italy
16. Gabriela Manzi, Architect, Director of the Department of Architecture, University of Chile, Chile
17. Anthony Vidler, Noted Scholar, Former Dean at the Cooper Union and Cornell University, New York, USA
18. Tatiana Bilbao, Noted Architect, Principal at Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO; Norman R. Foster professor at Yale School of Architecture, Mexico City, Mexico
19. Jeremy Smith, Design Director Irving Smith Architects, Professor, University of Auckland, New Zealand; International Advisor, SCAD, Chennai, India
20. Marlon Blackwell, Noted Architect, Marlon Blackwell Architects, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
(Signed by more than 600 architects and scholars representing 118 universities in more than 30 countries)
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