Modernism alive in Ahmedabad
“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.” Le Corbusier
I have just read Katya’s first post in our joint blog and it struck me that running a joint blog with your wife might not be a good idea at all, if your wife writes well.
Fine, if you realise you can not win in table tennis, switch to volleyball instead. A new topic.
We have recently visited Le Corbusier’s (LC) Cabanon in the French Cote d’Azur https://capmoderne.com/en/ It’s a tiny private place on a plot of land he shared with his friends — to work and enjoy the sea. Very cosy and full of symbols which he developed further and used in his creations. We were told that in the 80’s when Cabanon was not a museum yet, there was still a master plan of Chandigarh pinned to the wall in the studio. We have more and more Indian connections coming up in our lives, and it makes sense to follow them.
“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”
Enlightened Nehru let LC turn Chandigarh into his playground. LC was not so lucky in Marseille or Moscow. But here the two talents met: Nehru wanted to impress India and the world with a modernist icon (we call it ideology and who saves on ideology?), so LC finally got the contract to build a new capital for a state (Punjab, after its split in two, and tragedy of Partition).
What we see today is what French call grandeur! But most important is all the three major public buildings by LC are alive and functioning — they are not museums. At the High Court I studied LC’s original tapestries while the court hearing was in progress (a lawyer and the father of Jitin Talwar, a founder of Xlpat startup, kindly showed me around), and the chowkidar explained to me at length how troublesome it was to clean the tapestries.
In India LC was obsessed with lighting and wind catching (just look at his working model above) — everything is still functioning well, according to inhabitants. Great place to see modernism alive. However they should find a better use for a grand parade field-ground between the Assembly and the High Court. LC envisaged executives and legislators walking peacefully between the two, but that was not a good idea, see below.
To understand how LC influenced local young architects of independent India we moved to Ahmedabad. The capital of Gujarat is simply a treasure grove for those interested in architectural modernism, but I would only mention two places: LC’s Mill Owners’ Association (1954) and Balkrishna Doshi’s L.D.Institute of Indology (1962). The latter testifies that Nehru’s other task for LC to train the local architects had also been fulfilled.
Mill Owners’ is the best kept LC building I have ever seen. And, as always, all thanks to the devotion of a single person, in this case Abhinava Shukla. Here are his details if you want a quality talk on the building and feel like thanking him for all the efforts (Secretary General, Ahmedabad Mills Association at Mill Owners’ Building, atma.secgen@gmail.com, M +919825303820). First — LC started using red limestone here in addition to concrete — a breakthrough! He was definitely impressed with the local traditional architecture. Second — a phanthasmagorical entrance with a sliding door. How enlightened should the owner be to agree to it back in 1954. Whether modernist icons are comfortable to live/work in is another story — it will be about Louis Khan’s buildings in Ahmedabad and Dhaka.
And now look at Doshi’s Institute of Indology:
Yes, LC’s inspiration is strong, but as some of our friends say «same-same but different». Doshi added wood and splashed color on some walls. Plus made lighting more cosy and human I would say — staff has to spend at least 8 hours in the building every day. I spent an hour inside after the business day was over, and it was busy, even in the basement (the second picture above). I asked Indologists if they liked the building — they said yes, but in summer it gets very hot. I think it’s because BD deviated from LC’s idea of wind catching and put all the external concrete sunscreens at a wrong angle. But it’s a marvelous piece, anyway.
So there you have it — from fundamentalist Le Corbusier — to the more cosy but still hardcore modernist Doshi — to maybe Geoffrey Bawa, an icon of tropical modernism. Katya, the floor is all yours.
