On November 3rd, 2022, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) announced the decision to end the restoration works for elements of the campus designed by Louis Kahn with Indian architects Balkrishna V. Doshi and Anant Raje in 1962. The decision affects the faculty blocks, classroom complex, and dorms other than dorm D15. According to the statement, the institution plans to replace some of the buildings, as the complex is “facing structural damage, deterioration and have become uninhabitable, posing a safety concern for the campus's residents.” This represents a reversal of the decision to withdraw the first demolition plans following global protests, announced in January 2021.
The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad was born out of a collaboration between a visionary group of industrialists and the Harvard Business School with the aim of creating a new educational institute focused on the advancement of specific professions to advance India’s industry. Balkrishna Doshi invited Louis Kahn to envision a new, modern school. Kahn understood the need for more than efficient spatial planning of the classrooms as he began to question the design of the educational infrastructure as a whole. The conceptual rethinking of the educational practice transformed a school into an institute, where education was a collaborative, cross-disciplinary effort occurring in and out of the classroom. Today the complex, including the Vikram Sarabhai Library, Lecture Halls, Administration, and 18 dormitories, is recognized as one of Kahn’s seminal works in India.
In December 2020 the IIMA announced that the dormitories are planned for demolition due to problems of leakages from the roof, dampness in walls, and structural concerns. The institution planned to replace them with new dormitories, increasing the housing capacity from 500 to 800. The buildings, which were damaged during an earthquake in 2001, had been part of an ongoing restoration by Mumbai firm SNK, Somaya, and Kalappa Consultants. Still, the IIMA claims that there were complaints about the deterioration of the buildings dating from as early as 1982.
Following this announcement in December 2020, global protests erupted, asking for the conservation of the buildings. A petition to save the dormitories raised almost 20,000 signatures, demonstrating an international interest in the issue. More protests followed as architectural historian William Curtis called it “an act of cultural vandalism.” This led the board of governors to withdraw the Expression of Interest that was put out and re-evaluate the options.
Now, the demolition and replacement plans have been renewed, citing engineers from IIT Roorkee and an undisclosed group of restoration experts. The board of governors stated that “there was a need to address this issue rather than opt for temporary solutions such as restorations, which had been attempted but were not as effective.”
In a 2014 Architectural Review article, William J.R. Curtis warned against the threats of demolition faced by many important works of architecture in India, mainly due to the nation’s political atmosphere and “hyper-inflated capitalist boom.” He recognizes Ahmedabad as “one of the world’s leading museums of modern architecture, with outstanding buildings such as Correa’s Gandhi Ashram Museum, Doshi’s CEPT School of Architecture, and his studio Sangath.”
On a similar note, the Smithsonian Institution has announced plans to demolish Gyo Obata’s Restaurant Pavilion in Washington D.C to be replaced with the Bezos Learning Center, while in Tokyo, the , Kisho Kurokawa's iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower has been recently demolished, while a digital version of it has been created to become available in the Metaverse.
