Prologue Demolitions represent not only the destruction of material edifices but also ideological ones, of histories being rewritten, of m...
Prologue
Demolitions represent not only the destruction of material edifices but also ideological ones, of histories being rewritten, of memories erased. The campaigns to resist them might offer insights on legacy, ecology, and empathy – on other ways of worldmaking.
On December 23, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, through a letter to its alumni, made public plans to replace (demolish and rebuild) 14 student dormitory buildings on its campus designed by the late American architect Louis Kahn. Kahn worked on the campus from1962, until his death in 1974.
Following his death, Anant Raje who had worked with Kahn in Philadelphia from 1964 to 1969, and who directed the site office from 1969 to 1974, continued work on the campus. Raje remained a co-author of the IIMA campus until 2000, along with various other architects, engineers, and visionaries, whose stories remain buried in the hagiography surrounding Louis Kahn.
IIMA’s announcement prompted national and international concern. Voices of condemnation and appeals for reconsideration poured in from emerging and eminent architects, academics, historians, students, from the alumni of the IIMA, the World Monuments Fund, The International Council of Monuments and Sites, The Getty Foundation, The International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern...
