IIM-Ahmedabad to discuss demolition of Louis Kahn buildings

A feasibility factor also remains as the cost of restoration has been projected to be around Rs 3.5 crore per dorm

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) may put its plan to demolish the work of American architect Louis Khan on its campus on hold after several architects and academics posted an open letter and signed a petition which has over 12,000 signatures.

According to a report by Ahmedabad Mirror, a decision on the petitions will be discussed during a Board of Governor's meeting which is scheduled soon. The report also added that the institute may set up a panel to reconsider its decision.

Earlier this month, the institute administration had announced plans to raze 14 of 18 student dormitory buildings designed by architect Louis Kahn and built in the 1960s and 1970s. However, after a local and international outcry, an online meeting to begin seeking new bids for the demolition was cancelled.

The school had previously commissioned an extensive restoration project for the buildings but reversed course with a plan to build anew.

In a letter to alumni on December 23, the management institute’s director, Errol D’Souza, had defended the demolition plans, and said that the structures are “unlivable” because of issues including “concrete and slabs falling from the roofs, brick deterioration causing cracking and water seepage, and structural issues resulting from a 2001 earthquake."

Also read: Louis Kahn's children urge for preservation as IIM-A decides to raze 14 'unsafe' dormitories designed by him: Report

D'Souza reportedly said that an independent body such as the Central Building Research Institute will be conducting a structural analysis of the dorms and provide inputs "on the feasibility of restoration." However, a feasibility factor remains as the cost of restoration has been projected to be around Rs 3.5 crore per dorm, according to a report by The Times of India.

In a statement, the World Monuments Fund called on the institute’s administration to reconsider, citing the project’s influence on the “modern development of Indian higher education,” and the environmentally sensitive design that continues to be an example of how to build for a local climate.

“Conceived as an ensemble, the Kahn campus must be preserved in its entirety to protect the aesthetic, functional and symbolic values imbued within,” the statement said.

The supporters of the dorms who wrote the open letter include the Council of Architecture, India, as well as Pritzker Architecture Prize laureates Rafael Moneo, Alejandro Aravena and Balkrishna Doshi (the architect who brought Kahn to India in the early 1960s). Questions were also raised on how the dorms reached such a state of disrepair.

Who was Louis Kahn?

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 Church of Rochester, New York. He also famously had three families, talked to bricks and died on the men’s room floor in Penn Station.

(With NYT inputs)