AHMEDABAD, INDIA

Described by 16th-century European travelers as “the handsomest town in Hindustan,
perhaps in the world,” in the 17th century as a “city comparable in size and wealth to
London” and as “the Manchester of the East” for its thriving textile industry, Ahmedabad
eventually hosted an architectural treasure trove in the 20th century. This metropolis in
western India, with a population of more than 2.8 million, is home to four key buildings
designed by Le Corbusier (1887–1965), the well-crafted Indian Institute of Management
Campus (1962–73) by American architect Louis I.Kahn (1901–74), and outstanding
projects by leading Indian architects Charles Correa (1930), Balkrishna Doshi (1927),
and Achyut Kanvinde (1916).
Named after its founder, Ahmed Shah, Ahmedabad was established in 1411 on the site
of Ashawal, an earlier trading settlement that was abandoned in the 11 th century.
Occupying the east bank of the Sabarmai River, the original city of Ahmedabad,
popularly known as the Old City, continues to serve as a distinct commercial and
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 54
residential core of the present-day metropolis. With the building of the Ellis Bridge in
1870 (a wooden structure replaced by steel in 1882) and subsequent construction of a
series of reinforced-concrete bridges capable of withstanding monsoon floods, the city
started to expand across to the west bank. New bridges opened the less crowded west, or
right, bank of the river. The empty west bank was more attractive for development
compared with the crowded east side. This remains so today, even as the city is now
spread equally on both sides of the river. The expansion of the west bank in the 20th
century encouraged a wide range of new architecture. It would be a mistake, however, to
overlook the Old City, because the living architectural heritage from the last five
centuries can be found alongside 20th-century buildings. Noteworthy modern projects in
the Old City include the Premabhai Hall (1972) and the Central Bank of India Head
Office (1966) by Doshi, the Reserve Bank Headquarters (1969) by Hasmukh Patel
(1933), the Roman Catholic Church of Gaekwad-ni-Haveli (1979) by Leo Pereira (1943),
and the Geodesic Domed Calico Shop (1962) by Gautam (1917–95) and Gira Sarabhai
(1923).
Foundations of 20th-century architecture of Ahmedabad are primarily Western in
origin, beginning in the early 19th century, when the British took control of the city from
the Maratha kings. They established a military cantonment to the northeast of the Old
City in 1830. The railway was introduced in the 1860s with the first textile mill. In the
1870s, new gates were opened in the city wall, and large portions of it were pulled down
after World War I. Early expansion of modern Ahmedabad occurred on the side of the
Old City and in the direction of the cantonment. Suburban Shahibagh still holds a number
of well-designed homes of the rich mercantile class, including the Retreat (1936)
designed by Surendranath Kar (1892–1970), and Le Corbusier’s ground-hugging, vaulted
structure of the Sarabhai House (1951).
The completion of the Ellis Bridge was followed by increased development on the
west side of the river. Not too far from the bridgehead emerged the educational complex
of Gujarat College (c.1890), an eclectic Public Works Department project with Gothic,
Tudor, and local touches, where the George V Hall (1910) was renamed Mahatma
Gandhi Hall after India’s independence. Other important buildings include the Town Hall
(1940), designed by an influential British architect, Claude Batley (1879–1956); the
Bombay-based partnership of Gregson, Batley, and King is inspired by Indian traditions
and Western classical orders. The Town Hall, the Relief Cinema (1940), and the
Electricity House (c. 1940) do not bear the typical stylistic imprint of these architects;
rather, the Art Deco and the International Style architecture seem to have inspired all
three buildings.
The Postindependence Era
Ashram Road, the main traffic artery connecting all bridgeheads along the west bank of
the Sabarmati River, begins near the Subhas Bridge to the north and ends near Sardar
Bridge to the south. A host of important civic structures are located along this road,
including Charles Correa’s Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya (1963), located less than 100
yards from the Hriday Kunj (heart grove) in the Sabarmati Ashram, where Gandhi
resided from 1917 to 1930. Built around 20-foot-square modules only 7 feet high with
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hutlike structures that are interconnected and with courtyards, this modest and inspiring
edifice holds letters, photographs, and other documents of Gandhi. Kanvinde’s Darpana
Dance Academy (1968) fits beautifully with nature and its surroundings. To the south of
the Gandhi Bridge lies the wellknown Mill Owners’s Association Building by Le
Corbusier. The southernmost crossing of the river at Sardar Bridge is the cultural
prescient of Ahmedabad; Le Corbusier’s recently refurbished museum, or the Sanakar
Kendra (1954–57), the reinforced-concrete folded plate structure of Tagore Memorial
Theater (1962) by Doshi, and the rambling National Institute of Design Campus (1961)
by Gautam and Gira Sarabahi are all located here.
The westward growth of suburban Ahmedabad continued rapidly in the
postindependence period. A number of welldesigned private residences can be found in
these neighborhoods, including the Shodhan Villa (1951–54) by Le Corbusier, which,
according to his Oeuvre complète, “recalls the ingenuity of the Villa Savoye…in a tropical Indian
setting.”
A number of educational and research institutions beyond these suburbs represent
significant contemporary architecture of Ahmedabad, including the Gujarat University
main buildings (1947) by Atmaram Gajjar (1901–61); a fine range of projects by
architect Doshi, including the Institute of Indology (1957–62), science buildings (1959–
62) for Gujarat University, the School of Architecture (1966–68), the Gandhi Labor
Institute (1980–84), and the Hussain-Doshi Gufa (1992–94), a mosaiccovered cavelike
exhibition structure; the Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association Facility
(1950–52) and the Physical Research Laboratory (1954) by Kanvinde; and the Newman
Hall (1970) and the Indian Space Research Organization (1975), two beautiful brick
complexes, by Hasmukh Patel. The Nehru Center for Environmental Education (1988–
90) by Neelkanth Chhaya (1951) and the Entrepreneur Development Institute (1985–87)
by Bimal Patel (1960) represent projects by young Indian architects. Louis Kahn’s
brooding brick complex of the Indian Institute of Management has served as an
inspiration to many of these projects.
Although the recent urban growth of Ahmedabad has not been very coherent and is
continuing in a rather uncontrolled fashion, a few housing projects provide attractive and
affordable places to live. For example, the Ahmedabad Study Action Group’s Housing
Rehabilitation Project (1973–75) provides housing for about 2,500 flood-affected
families in the southern suburb of Vasna. It combines a series of housing clusters around
a sequence of open spaces, well suited for community activities. In his Life Insurance
Corporation Project (1973–76), Doshi employed a stackable urban row house model that
allows users to expand their units. Architect Kamal Mangaldas’s (1938) narrow-front row
house project for Sanjay Park (1985) and the duplex-type Gulmohur Luxury Housing
(1986) support a sense of community and self-sufficiency by organizing rows of housing
around a cluster of amenities. However, such projects are few and far between.
Nevertheless, these enlightened housing and architectural projects distinguish
Ahmedabad from other rapidly expanding Indian cities.