IIM-A dorm controversy: Architect community seeks technical report

Confidential, says institute, as clamour grows against decision to raze Louis Kahn's legacy

The architectural community has sought technical details from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to understand the business school’s decision to rebuild some of its iconic dormitories, which are part of legendary American architect Louis Kahn’s legacy.

Many have called IIM-A’s decision to demolish and rebuild some of the dorms a “colossal blunder” and expressed dissatisfaction with the B-school’s reasons for the decision.

“It is very disappointing to see the manner in which the institute is moving forward,” says architect and CEPT alumnus Riyaz Tayyibji. “It is difficult to say what challenges they are facing. The director has said there are some technical and cost issues.” He says while it is not unusual for buildings that are 50-60 years old to need maintenance, it is intriguing why IIM-A is not sharing more technical information that can help the architectural fraternity figure out what’s possible and what isn’t. 

“As an architect, our presumption is that we know how to restore these things and believe it is very much possible. So when IIM-A says it is not, it is very intriguing,” Tayyibji says.

Pritzker Prize Laureate B V Doshi, who worked with Kahn to build the IIM-A campus, too expresses dismay over the decision. “These buildings can be restored (without losing Kahn’s legacy). Already one dorm has been restored, and so has the library, which is now better than earlier and even won an award. So where is the question of rebuilding them instead?” Especially at a time when the focus is on restoring iconic buildings such as this one, he adds.

Another renowned city-based architect, requesting anonymity, says, “The technical details shared by the director so far are quite sketchy”.

Urging the institute to reconsider the “precipitous” decision to avert an “impending disaster”, Kahn’s children — Sue Ann Kahn, Alexandra Tyng and Nathaniel Kahn — have in their letter to IIM-A Director Errol D’Souza termed the structures as the “heart of our father’s universally acknowledged masterpiece at IIMA”. 

Giving the example of Richards Building as a “useful structure” after restoration, the siblings have suggested IIM-A to repurpose the dorms to “alternative needs and uses”.  Besides, British architectural historian William JR Curtis has also suggested that the buildings can serve other purposes in the life of the institution.

On its part, IIM-A has decided to invite as many representations from architects around the world for rebuilding — or restoring — the dorms (see box). 

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Kahn, an exponent of exposed brick architecture, had built 18 dormitories around the Louis Kahn Plaza (LKP), which comprises the Vikram Sarabhai Library, faculty and administrative blocks as well as classrooms. However, following gradual wear and tear as well as some structural damage due to the 2001 earthquake, IIM-A took up the restoration work of these buildings. 

The B school held a competition in 2014 to grant the restoration and updation work of all of Kahn’s buildings, including the Vikram Sarabhai library, faculty and administrative blocks and classroom buildings. Mumbai-based firm Somaya and Kalappa (S&K) Consultants won the contest. The library’s restoration, in fact, bagged the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage and was widely appreciated for its conservation work. 

However, the 18 dorms (D1 to D18) have been facing problems like leakages and dampness in walls, apart from the damage caused by the earthquake. 

Barring Dorm 15, which has been restored, and 16-18, which will be restored, the others are in the inner core. For these, IIM-A plans to invite architects to present designs that amalgamate functional needs with cultural heritage. The plan is to rebuild the dorms so that they are “congruent with the grammar that Kahn visualised for the campus”, according to D’Souza’s letter to the alumni. “It has not been easy to deal with issues that have come up,” the IIM-A director’s letter adds.

According to his letter, the building committee and the board of governors (BoG) at IIM-A have grappled with questions like whether the functional requirements of the current user should be privileged over the memories of the past. “Are all the buildings of Louis Kahn non-renewable or is it justifiable to have just a few — the dorms — redesigned in a new format that preserves the language of the great architect who gave us a campus we are thankful for daily?” D’Souza asks in the letter.

‘We will hear the architects out’

IIM-A Director Errol D’Souza

 

“Given the noise from architects around the world, we have decided to put up all representation before the board for its consideration. The board will take these specialised inputs and then decide whether to move forward or not. We will keep collecting such representations for at least a couple of weeks before the board decides to meet again. Anyway, we will start the work on these dorms only in July 2022. In 2021, we only look to first identify an architect,” IIM-A Director Errol D’Souza told Business Standard.

 However, the institute will not be able to share the technical report prepared by the appointed architects with others as is being demanded by the community, he added. “I cannot share the technical report, which has been shared confidentially with our board. They are, however, welcome to make their own representations on how they wish to go about the dorm rebuilding. If we don’t find an architect, only then would we go for restoration as a backup option. But that would be a sub-optimal decision; the board has to take a call whether the backup will be the main decision,” D’Souza said, while ruling out any possibility of repurposing the dorms.