At the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the red-brick iconic structures created by renowned American architect Louis Kahn during 1962-75, through which legions of students have passed through, any talk of reconstruction generates heated debate among students as well as the alumni. The years of degeneration and frequent structural repairs had necessitated a wide-scale conservation and restoration effort.

In 2014, the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs amended the Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 and included donations for restoration work at IIM-A to be eligible under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. The leaders at IIM-A were gung-ho about the unlocking of the much-needed resources to restore the campus that includes classrooms, faculty offices, student dormitories and a library.

A treasure for India and world

Terming it an “evocative set of structures,” having an appeal for students, faculty and alumni, Ashish Nanda, former Director (2013-2017), IIM-A, and also an alumnus, was quick to seek financial support from institutions and alumni to help preserve and restore what many believed was “a treasure for the people of India and, indeed, the world.”

The excitement was reflected in the momentum the project gained with noted architects, Somaya & Kalappa Consultants, taking up the restoration project, initially estimated to cost around ₹75 crore. Besides its alumni, the institute had started reaching out to corporates for funding with its readiness to recognise “significant contributions by offering naming rights” on the buildings.

But the euphoria proved short-lived.

Losing it brick-by-brick

A little less-than-a-decade later, on June 4, 2023, the Board of Governors led by Chairman Pankaj Patel, persuaded the alumni, conservation activists and other stakeholders to accept the suggestion of razing down the old structure and construct it afresh with the exterior resembling the original.

In his suggestion, supported with a presentation by professors of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Roorkee), Patel underlined the technical complexity involved in the restoration. One of the 150 alumni members, who attended the meeting - online and offline - informed that the Chairman stated that though theoretically it was possible to restore the buildings, it was not advisable going by its current condition. “It was said to be impractical and prohibitively expensive to restore it,” the member said.

The buildings — made of a unique exposed red-brick structure — had sustained more damage than what the experts had imagined. The structures has cracks in masonry walls, piers and arches. Ahmedabad being in seismic zone III, it was a difficult task to strengthen the existing buildings against the earthquakes. In the past six decades, the buildings decayed with age and also withstood an earthquake in 2001. The buildings became unsafe for students and faculty.

Surviving the legacy

The recent meeting by Chairman Patel is seen as an outreach attempt to bring alumni, conservationists and architects all on board for an unanimous decision to rebuild the buildings with “the same exterior façade.” This was necessary considering a full-blown controversy around the Board of Governors’ decision to rebuild the structures. After the BoG’s November 2022 decision to reconstruct instead of restore those buildings, a large section of alumni and conservationists across the globe raised strong objections.

Post this June 4 meeting, several alumni have voiced their agreement to the need for a reconstruction of the buildings but stressed on keeping the ‘legacy of Kahn’ intact through exteriors.

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