Plans to raze Louis Kahn-designed dorms in India are on hold

Plans to raze 14 of 18 dormitories designed by architect Louis Kahn for the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad that set off an international outcry were rolled back Friday.

The school’s board of governors said in a letter Friday that in response to feedback it was “withdrawing the Expression of Interest” to demolish the dorms, which were built in the 1960s and ’70s, and would reconvene its building committee to find a solution that honours the legacy of the campus while meeting the university’s future needs.

The student dormitories in Ahmedabad exemplify Kahn’s ability to design buildings in “response to the cultures, climates and traditions of their respective places,” said historian William JR Curtis, who wrote op-eds for Architectural Record and The Architectural Review in support of the dorms’ preservation.

In a statement Wednesday, the World Monuments Fund called for the demolition to be reconsidered.

The management institute’s director, Errol D’Souza, had earlier defended the plans in a Dec 23 letter to alumni, calling the structures “unliveable” because of issues including “concrete and slabs falling from the roofs”; brick deterioration causing cracking and water seepage; and structural problems resulting from a 2001 earthquake.

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