REINVIGORATING PUBLIC REALM: Masters in Interior Architecture_Thesis_Hasselt University 2020

REINVIGORATING PUBLIC REALM INVESTIGATING THE POTENTIAL OF MODERNIST CULTURAL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA

SHAILJA PATEL Supervisor: Bie Plevoets International Masters in Interior Architecture - Adaptive Reuse Faculty of Architecture and Arts Hasselt University 2019-2020

REINVIGORATING PUBLIC REALM

Investigating the Potential of Modernist Cultural Public Institutions in India SHAILJA PATEL 15th MAY 2020 COVER PAGE: Sketch of Premabhai Hall by Balkrishna Doshi Modification by Shailja Patel

Supervisor: Bie Plevoets International Masters in Interior Architecture - Adaptive Reuse Faculty of Architecture and Arts Hasselt University 2019-2020

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ABSTRACT

Constructing this research when the entire society has shifted virtually,

refer to year 2020, the public realm today lies on our screen. Beginning with the idea of virtual, intends to create the tone of the premise of this research, 1) addressing the public realm and 2) in context of architecture addressing the tangible aspects of public realm i.e. urban spaces. The contemporary lifestyle has brought in several macro and micro level issues on urban scale which design has helped resolve. The research thesis brings and juxtaposes few concepts together that can unfold and resolve urban issues through the relevant design strategy. To simplify, Reinvigorating | Public Realm – Reenergizing or reinventing | Architecturally, an urban space for public use The strategy of adaptive reuse in architectural practice, focuses on giving new meaning to something which has a history of its existence. This strategy has been creatively practiced in different contexts that has created a shift in perception of the existing versus new. In recent years, the frequent practice of adaptive reuse has consorted to some exemplary examples that deals with reinventing the public realm through urban reuse.

Investigating the Potential | of Modernist Cultural Public Institutions in India Inspecting capabilities | Post-Independence architecture of India, in search of identity India reformed itself from the colonial rule under the influence of modernity.

While modernism was being explored and defined, India was searching its identity in its new phase as a free country. The democracy brought in several organizational changes, that led to creation of the public institutions that preserved culture, imparted knowledge and practiced science. Although these institutions sought to preserve, revive and celebrate culture, over time it perception shifted on being more educational than culture.

India presents a unique context albeit its rich legacy of architectural heritage, it still seeks a unified identity. The answer to this lies in the public realm in Indian context. Perhaps almost every regional vernacular architecture embeds a sequence of spaces consisting varied privacies and publicness, the urban India on other hand, reflects rather a stark definition of spaces. One can associate the starkness noticeable in its post-independent architecture. To bind together, the thesis explores the potential of public institutions to contribute to public realm with relevant literature research, study of cases and their analyses.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Year 2020.

While the world was on pause, we were still in motion, virtually.

I would like to take a chance to acknowledge the support I have received throughout the year that has helped me accomplish this thesis and has further deepened my interest in this field. I find myself motivated to manifest all the learnings I have to come to realize from a different context than the one which I come from.

I would like to thank my teachers Bie Plevoets, Nikolaas vande Keere, Phillipe Swartenbroux and Linde van den Bosch for their critiques through the year which helped me improve, articulate and accumulate my thoughts in this document. Meanwhile, looking back to discussions with Saidja Heynickx and Koenraad van Cleempoel, I have found myself inspired and curious to constantly engage with history and imagination. To assimilate all, I would extend my gratitude to Els Hannes that opened us and made us a part of the landscape, the local life and culture on our bikes.

It wouldn’t have been a complete study if not for Shaurya Patel, Shivam Choudhary, Vishnu Asrith and Vruti Shah. Thank you for helping me collect information on Premabhai Hall by sharing your experience, ideas, images and data; extending to Gauri Bharat, Khyati V. , Komal Patel and Niharika Joshi for their feedback and discussions on the project.

Last but not the least, My parents, for being constant motivators, My brother, my foremost and fellow peer, My folk of friends back in India and, Most of all my batchmates of UHasselt in which I found a lasting friendship.

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TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................. iv Introduction.......................................................................................................................... vi Aim......................................................................................................................................... vii Objective................................................................................................................................ vii Research Questions............................................................................................................... vii Scope of Work and Limitations.............................................................................................. vii Methodology and Structure of Thesis................................................................................... viii PART 1 / CONCEPT......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Archaic Past and Recent Past...........................................................................................

1.2 Public Realm.....................................................................................................................

1.2.1 Public Realm and Society.................................................................................

1.2.2 Public Realm and Design..................................................................................

1.2.3 Public Realm and Economy..............................................................................

1.3 Public Interior...................................................................................................................

1.4 Cultural Public Institutions...............................................................................................

1.5 Urban Regeneration: Strategy of Adaptive Reuse...........................................................

3 4 5 5 7 7 7 8

PART 2 / CONTEXT....................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Modern Movement: Critical Disconnect......................................................................... 10

2.1.1 Characteristics of Modernist Buildings............................................................ 11

2.1.2 Modern Buildings as Recent Past.................................................................... 12 2.2 Post-Independence Architecture: Impression of Modern Movement in India.............. 14

2.2.1 Threat and vulnerable position of Post-Independence Architecture............. 15 2.3 Cultural Public Institutions in India: Origin...................................................................... 17

2.3.1 Public Realm and Cultural Public Institutions................................................. 18

2.3.2 Reinvigorating Public Realm through Adaptive Reuse.................................... 20 PART 3 / STRATEGY...................................................................................................... 23 3.1 Urban Regeneration for Public Realm: Entities and Constituents................................... 24

3.1.1 Elements of Space Making in Public Realm.................................................... 27 3.2 Cases of Urban Regeneration.......................................................................................... 28

3.2.1 SESC Pompeia, Sao Paolo................................................................................ 28

3.2.2 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.............................................................................. 32

3.2.3 Tate Modern, London...................................................................................... 35

3.2.4 A Comparative Outlook................................................................................... 39 3.3 Cultural Public Institutions and Ahmedabad................................................................... 40

3.3.1 The Case of Premabhai Hall............................................................................ 41

3.3.2 Conceptualization and Proposal...................................................................... 45

3.3.3 Timeline........................................................................................................... 50 PART 4 / INFERENCE...................................................................................................... 51 Listing of Modern Heritage in India.............................................................................. 54 List of Illustrations....................................................................................................... 57 Bibliography................................................................................................................ 59

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INTRODUCTION The language of architecture in India through the history has seen several layers of cultural influences over time. With modernism infusing in the Indian landscape, courtesy of British architects, during the colonial rule, it only saw rise post India’s independence from the rule in 1947. It had a subdued presence until colonialism, but modernism catapulted in practice only after independence. The first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of a free nation, an independent India brought in the renowned architect Le Corbusier to leave behind a legacy of buildings that were one of the most significant ones for both India and Corbusier. With this association, the country also saw a rise in practices of some Indian architects who notably added with their work to the modernist international style in Indian context.

While Nehru envisioned Chandigarh, the mill owners were shaping Ahmedabad to attain the identity of a cultural commercial city. While concentrating on the development of institutions on the west bank of the Sabarmati, the vision of a modern city that the millowners had created nothing but all ignored their and the city’s poorest residents. The social stratification along lines of class, corporate heirarchy embodied in planning of institutions, it abetted communal tensions which were largely absent since the time of Gandhi. It wasn’t confined to their sponsored architecture, but was written into the urban plan itself. As their political and economic power dwindled, so did the millowners’ monopoly on patronage of modern architecture in the Ahmedabad context. As new patrons emerged, they brought differing conceptions of a modern city to Ahmedabad.

This diversification of the clientele of modern architecture began in the 1960s and accelerated as the millowners’ political and economic strength weakened (Williamson, 2016).

Today, these buildings face a menacing threat from sundry issues that the country has been experiencing through time. The peril doomed upon these buildings are affected due to factors involving unexplained trivial demolition, lack of maintenance and inadequate care for the buildings, political corruption, thoughtless modernisation, rapid petty densification to the biggest threat of all uncontrolled profiteering, land speculation thereby increasing the price of land.

To address this ascending concern to save the iconic but young buildings that represented the modern Indian ideology, from disappearing into mere photographic memories, it requires an acute intervention on a scale that dignifies and signifies its importance both architecturally as well as culturally. The interventions, if not to the degree of protection, can still be revived and revitalized by applying strategies involving its adaptive reuse. Public institutions were adequately constructed during the postindependence architecture. It included reformations of existing buildings to new ones, loosing the colonial identity, searching for the stronghold.

Driven by capitalist history, the consumer driven society, in Ahmedabad were provided with spaces such as performing art theatre, auditorium halls and museum. While Sanksar Kendra, failed to connect both conceptually and in appeal, its adjacent building Tagore Hall (designed by B.V.Doshi, vi

1963) has been functioning well in capacity ever since. The brutalist folded plates, caught attention to anyone who was coming over from the east side.

Meanwhile a younger auditorium hall, on the east side, Premabhai Hall also designed by Doshi, remained dysfunctional in Bhadra Plaza facing threats of demolition. To restructure the density of the plaza, it was redeveloped in 2014, allowing an extended life for Premabhai Hall. The empty site and its context combining structures of 15th Century and other modernist buildings in vicinity shares an extremely intimate yet rational relationship with locals, the public realm. A deeper understanding of this relationship is explored and discussed with supporting concepts and theories.

AIM The aim of the thesis is to emphasize on the need to reinvigorate public realm through strategy of adaptive reuse in Indian context by studying spatial potential of Cultural Public Institutions. It also highlights the need to reinvent and thereby protect the post-independence architecture of India as they are in a vulnerable position due to rapid and unorganized urbanization.

OBJECTIVE •To establish the nature of the relationship between public buildings and public realm •To analyse the nature of the public realm in cultural public institutions •To find strategies to reinvigorate the public realm in cultural public institutions

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1) What is the meaning of the relics of the Modern Movement in urban scape today? How can it be redefined? Is there a difference in approach to revive the archaic past versus the recent past?

2) What is the contemporary idea of a public building / cultural institutions?

How can the spatial potential of existing cultural spaces serve public realm?

3)Can one reform public realm through strategies of adaptive reuse?

SCOPE OF WORK The thesis focuses on the recent body of work in the history of architecture.

It explores the meaning and its redefinition of modern buildings both historically and today. It explains by providing international examples and specific examples related to the Indian context. Adaptive reuse is the underlying focus on each of the parameter which brings to light the current condition of the buildings at present and their potential to expand to public sphere. The thesis looks at cultural public institutions through the perspective of public activities and public necessities. It highlights the potential of public spaces of cultural institutions for the public realm.

LIMITATIONS The theoretical study of modernism is relevant for cases in India as the cultural public institutions built under the influence of modernist movement were only built in 1950s – 1990s which is the post-independence architecture. The case studies selected to represent Indian context are based on their existing condition and their potential to serve public domain by through relevant design interventions. The case of Premabhai Hall extends as Masters Project which shall be discussed in detail that will address design strategies to deal with this typology. vii

METHODOLOGY & STRUCTURE OF THESIS The thesis is divided into four parts: Concept, Context, Strategy and Inference. It follows literature reviews of subjects addressed in the thesis, along with analyses of selected case studies.

The chapters: Concept: explains the fundamental concepts which are addressed in the thesis through theory and examples.

Context: explains the Modern Movement as the typology under investigation and India as the specific place of study through its history, and current scenarios. It also discusses the typology of Cultural Public Institutions and its relationship with Public Realm.

Strategy: explains the intervention strategy of adaptive reuse by explaining fundamental concepts of design elements of public interior, function, activities and program that are important to achieve urban regeneration.

There are three international case studies selected which are analysed to understand their viable functionality which shall further help build cases for potential site in Indian context.

Inference: discusses the findings of the analyses and literature study.

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PART I / CONCEPTS

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Note: This Part 1 of the thesis focuses on explaining the key subjects of the study that will be reflected in the Part 3, Strategy. Each concept is explained with a supporting diagram or an image.

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1.1

ARCHAIC PAST AND RECENT PAST archaic /ɑːˈkeɪɪk/ very old or old-fashioned.

recent /ˈriːs(ə)nt/ having happened, begun, or been done not long ago; belonging to a past period comparatively close to the present.

Fig1. Representation of adopted definition of Archaic Past and Recent Past on a timeline

The juxtaposition of two contrasting words together in the context of the present represents the nature of built form manifested in different architectural styles in history. The juxtaposition highlights the turning point in architectural style practiced post-industrialization. It was the mass destruction occurred during World War I and II that Europe saw an opportunity and a strong need to reform and redefine the new way of living, the modern way. The international style, unlike the Neo-Classical manner of the late 18th Century, never became truly universal. Nevertheless, it implicated an influential change in method of techniques, application of synthetic materials, free plan, and homogeneous forms that adapted to the respective climate and cultural conditions (Frampton, 1992).

In the context of contemporary present today, the history of architecture here is positioned in two ways: the archaic past and the recent past. The term ‘archaic past’ refers to building styles before the Modern Movement, while the term ‘recent past’ refers to the part of history since the Modern Movement.

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1.2

PUBLIC REALM

public /ˈpʌb.lɪk/ relating to or involving people in general, rather than being limited to a particular group of people: of or concerning the people as a whole. realm /rɛlm/ noun a field or domain of activity or interest.

When the two words put together, ‘Public Realm’ can be defined as a collective entity that as a whole encompasses the interests and activities of the public. The nature of the public realm can vary from being social, political, cultural, or virtual. The most tangible and physical aspect of the public realm can be observed as a public – urban – space, that today is an integral part of a city’s fabric.

In his essay The Public Realm, Richard Sennett simplifies the definition by stating that a public realm is a place where strangers meet and an event of exchange takes place. Traditionally, the place is imagined as physical space; which is where the notion of public realm, again traditionally is linked to cities where it can commonly be identified as squares, major streets, theatres, cafes, lecture hall, government assemblies, or stock exchanges, where the event of socio-cultural interaction takes place between strangers. He also visualizes the interaction as an exchange of knowledge and expanding horizon of information that is unlikely to happen in an intimate private realm (Sennett, 2010).

The features of public realm consist of three elements that influences, governs, and impacts the events, which takes place within itself. They can be defined as follows: the enclosure – the built environment giving the sense of enclosure the space itself – which imbibes the notion of common grounds and nature of openness the people – the users that inhabits and associates with the space (Kothi, 2018).

Fig2. Representation of Public Realm in Diagram

There are multiple studies across the world conducted on the concept of Public Realm which gives an outlook through set of multiple lenses. While public realm reflects and absorbs aspects of anthropology and politics in its nature and manifestations, the tangible aspect of public realm responds to society, economy and design.

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1.2.1

PUBLIC REALM AND SOCIETY

“Public spaces are the realm of unfocused interactions between anonymous strangers. The chief rule is one of “civil inattention,” which helps people grant one another the right to be present and go about their own business.”(Erving Goffman, 1971).

Society comprises of people practicing culture, tradition, everyday routine while evolving and changing in time. The relationship between public realm and society can be described as a constant flux of change and adaptability inflicted on each other through time.

Fig3. Diagram representing relationship between Society and Public Realm

If one doesn’t change or adapt overtime it may lead to a conflict that can affect the nature of public realm. The society’s association is how the characteristics of the realm can be determined. While Erving’s take on public realm portrays the unfocused nature of interaction, one can argue that through the societal perspective of public realm, it is a domain of interaction where an anonymous individual encounters and discover resources and opportunities upon exchange with fellow individuals. It can rather be perceived as a field of opportunity for society to establish a universal sense of socio-cultural interaction. It also defines the idea of a collective for the society to rejoice and celebrate the sense of mass, community and togetherness. While society holds the power to change the dynamic of a public realm through their way of association, vice versa public realm can also enforce the dynamics of a community. Social relations can be constituted by space, constrained by space and meditated by space. This is the point where the relation between public realm and design fosters.

1.2.2

PUBLIC REALM AND DESIGN

For professionals involved in any of the environmental design fields the public realm is comprised of two parts. The first deals with the public components of the physical environment (artificial and natural) in which behaviour occurs and the second specifies how communal decisions are made by governments and in the marketplace as defined by a country’s constitution. The first affects perceptions of the elements of urban design and the second, the process of urban designing (Lang J. , 2005).

In the book ‘Public Spaces Urban Spaces’ the public realm is conceptually broken into two parts: - The physical public realm that involves spaces that facilitate public life and social interaction.

- The socio-cultural public realm involves the activities that take place in these spaces (Kothi, 2018).

There are four desirable qualities of public realm (Tiesdell and Oc,1998)Universal Access: The approach to a public realm is one of the most important aspect of its design. It should provide the user an equal opportunity, unrestricted movement, the notion of penetrability, moments of choice of either path or a decision. The point of breakage from a public realm to a governed 5

space happens when the universality of movement or penetrability is absent.

Neutral Territory: The notion of neutral territory implies the equality or equal opportunity provided to all in a public domain. There should be no bias based on any factor that can create an imbalance.

Inclusiveness: The idea of inclusiveness talks about the qualities of the space that involves and engage while its spatial formation creates the public realm as a core of the surrounding habitat.

Symbolic representative of the collective: Representation of notion of community is an important part of the public realm. It can be seen as a programmatic or functional gesture by involving community specific activities or by celebrating the local identity through design and architecture.

The relationship between public realm and design, considering the aspects mentioned above draws an ideal nature of situation where the idea of balance comes about. The art of cartography provides a unique insight for an urban designer to derive from. One of the best-known maps of Rome drawn by Giambattista Nolli is a case one must consider to understand the importance of balance in an urban scape. The plan drawn by Nolli in 1748 in which he approached to draw the spaces by showing figure and ground representation where the black becomes the private realm, whereas the white becomes the public realm. His decision to involve the colonnade spaces of St.Peter’s Square and the Pantheon as open civic spaces sets an example which significantly expands the typology of public realm. It is an example that demonstrates the equilibrium between the private and the public realm of Rome. The consistency between both the realms implies that the primary objective of design is to work towards benefitting the public realm. Public spaces must bring together, elements that reflect and support the common.

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Fig4. Nolli’s Plan for Rome differentiating the public space and private space

1.2.3

PUBLIC REALM AND ECONOMY

“The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more successfully, casually (and economically) its people thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can thus give back grace and delight to their neighbourhoods instead of vacuity.”

- Jane Jacobs Public realm interventions have become relevant today which are now inculcated by designers, architects and governments. These interventions aim to gentrify the neighbourhood or give them a renewed identity which boosts the ecology as well economy of the habitat. It aims to expand the urban economy apart from expanding the realm. The well-being of an urban ecosystem depends on various commodities such as public spaces, public transport, parks, malls etc. As the city expands, thus expands the opportunity for economic growth. The expansion creates a provision of more employment for the citizens as well. The expansion also creates a ripple effect that constantly affect the dynamics and meaning of the urban fragments of the city. These change in dynamics enforces to look at the public realm through different perspectives and thereby developing according to need and trend. This effect provides architects and designers to intellectually deal and maintain the equilibrium of the private and public realm. Thus, being said, the interventions should help create and maintain active community which leads to the strengthening of the economy.

1.3

PUBLIC INTERIOR

Manifestation of interaction that occurs in the public realm are administered by architectural elements that defines the physical space. While people provide social perspective to the public realm, enclosure and the space defines the tangible nature of the built environment.

Fig5. Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, Great Exposition, London, 1851

According to the book The Public Interior as Idea and Project, written

by Mark Pimlott, the term public interiors refers to spatially contained environments which are experienced as belong to the public sphere, e.g. spaces inside any institutions or civic buildings. The more extensive definition of public interiors as the totality of spaces in which civil society can be seen to operate means that the research extends to those environments, both inside and outside buildings, for the encounter and collective use of private people. These are places of sociability, entertainment, transport, leisure and commerce, as well as culture in the broader perspective. Public interiors closely reflect cultural, economic and demographic shifts in respect to people and are subject to changing fashions and life patterns (Pimlott, The Public Interior). Pimlott traces an arc that begins with the idea of landscape and the designed, picturesque garden: “a potent site for contemplation of the world, one’s place in it and the conceit of one’s dominion over it.” This conception finds one of its greatest manifestation in the glass houses such as Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace built for Great Exposition of 1851. These structural spaces created an interior environment could sustain plants as well as variety of other objects and artefacts (de Klerk, 2017).

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CULTURAL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

According to the oxford definition, an institution is an organization founded on religious, social, educational and professional purposes. A Public Institution in the public realm can be considered as a system that 7

provides a common place for a collective relationship to be built for social interactions amongst people.

Cultural Public Institution is a system that specifically promotes a base for discourses that relates to culture, art, literature, entertainment and lifestyle. Spaces such as museum, art gallery, theatre, auditorium, library defines the sphere for cultural public institutions. Over the years, such institutions have progressed in their multifunctional nature and today are also inclusive of discourses related to cultural heritage, local identity and its indigenous craftsmanship. An ideal cultural public institution aims to nurture, preserve, protect, boost, promote, impart, invent and celebrate the aspects of public realm.

Fig6.

Mind

mapping

Cultural Public Institution

1.5 URBAN REGENERATION: STRATEGY OF ADAPTIVE REUSE Adaptive reuse, the emerging branch of the discipline of conservation focuses on deriving new approaches to deal with an existing building or part of the city in most cases, the built heritage. The strategy of adaptive reuse conceptualizes architectural approaches that deals with the history, memory, cultural legacy, old techniques of construction and engineering in context of contemporary time. It allows one to create a dialogue between the past and the present. Its main aim is to reinvent the identity of the existing and generating new vision of life for that habitat. The approach can be visualized for any scale varying from a part of the building to reinventing neighbourhoods.

The term urban regeneration hints the scale that addresses the public realm. Urban regeneration occurs through the functional use and reuse of buildings and sites, as well as aims to strengthen and create a sense of local identity and enhance public well-being and social inclusion. Regeneration also allows the restoration and reuse by reactivation of intangible aspects such as local narratives, craftsmanship and traditions, thereby upgrading the surrounding landscape by taking a sustainable approach (Plevoets & Cleempoel, 2019).

The strategy of urban regeneration can be applied to cases which requires economic growth, rejuvenation of both spatial and cultural identity, to balance the effect of privatization and capitalization in the city via gentrification, to create an equilibrium in the public realm constituting different economical classes, to bridge the gap in socio-cultural interactions occurring due to the virtual realm, to revive the sense of community and most importantly to create a livable city which promotes equality at all levels.

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Fig7. Aerial view of High Line, New York

PART II / CONTEXT

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2.1

MODERN MOVEMENT: CRITICAL DISCONNECT

The Modern Movement gradually shaped as an international style – though not universal - by the impact of several factors such as industrialization and technological developments that paced its way since mid-19th Century that led to experimental structural and construction techniques, by discourses and discussions amongst architects on the idea of aesthetics and ornamentation that questioned the idea of degree of symbolism in physical manifestation and most importantly to the development of the concept of functionalism, an evolved version of formalism in architecture.

These mentioned influences became the core set of ideology that shaped the characteristics of modernism in architecture. At the turn of the century, heavy with industrialization taking over the fabric of the cities, it also saw the beginning of an unrest atmosphere in political sphere of Europe and eventually the world.

Meanwhile, the discussions of International Conference of Modern Architecture, also known as CIAM; were shaping towards building the concept Modernist City that aimed to determine the nature of urban.

While the first phase of the conference emphasized more on building rather than architecture as an intimate phenomena linked to human life, the second phase, the IV Conference produced the most destructive document, as per (Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 1992), which generalized the perception of urbanization whose influence we are still under today: Dwellings, Recreation, Work, Transportation, and Historic Buildings. The focus still remained on Functionalism, under which the radical characteristics of the Modern Movement shaped about.

Apart from the lasting influence of the 1933 CIAM charter which one can still see today, the buildings and cities designed under this regime had a rippling impact across the world. Critics like Kenneth Frampton, painstakingly juxtaposes the world examples in his book, by comparing the ideologies of both successful and non-successful projects realized under Modern Movement. What one can observe from the general consensus of the book is a critical issue that comes about – the lack of humanness, its disconnect from regional surrounding. In his book (Frampton, 1992), he quotes a statement, which is written by the Japanese architect Mayekawa in his essay Thoughts on Civilization in Architecture: “Modern architecture is and must be squarely based on the solid achievements of modern science, technology and engineering, Why then does it so often tend to become something inhuman? I believe that one of the main reasons is that it is not always created merely to satisfy human requirements, but rather for some other reason, such as the profit motive…

Another possibility is that inhuman elements may be contained within science, technology and engineering themselves. When man attempts to understand a certain phenomenon, science analyses it, breaking it down into simplest possible elements. Thus, in structural engineering when one attempts to understand a certain phenomenon, the methods adopted are those of simplification and abstraction. The question arises of whether the use of such methods may not cause a departure from human realities ….”

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2.1.1

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERNIST BUILDINGS

The characteristics of modernist buildings are easy to identify in present day context. However, one can observe several contemporary buildings in an urban scape imitating the modernist style today, what sets them apart is the strong visionary architectural concepts that were conceived by the respective architects during that time. The iconic features of any modernist building will possess – 1. free plan and its flexibility (Fig 8 Row 1) 2. cubist form of a volume (Fig 8 Row 1) 3. stripped off or lack of ornamentation (Fig 8 Row 1) 4. monumentality in scale (Fig 8 Row 2) 5. homogeneity and monotony (Fig 8 Row 2) 6. synthetic modern materials (Fig 8 Row 2) 7. skeleton or framed structure (Fig 8 Row 3) 8. light weight techniques of construction (Fig 8 Row 3) 9. standard modular parts for fabrication and erection (Fig 8 Row 3)

Fig8. Images representing the features of modernist architecture. Images are listed row wise.

Row 1 1. Mies van der Rohe: Brick Country House, Plan, 1924 2. Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye, Poissy, France, 1929 3. Juan O’Gorman: Casa O’Gorman, Mexico City, Mexico, 1929 Row 2 4. Louis Kahn: National Parliament House, Bangladesh, 1982 5. Louis Kahn: Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad, India, 1963 6. Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet: Maison de Verre, Paris, France, 1932 Row 3 7. Le Corbusier: Dom-Ino House, 1914-15 8. Richard Neutra: Lovell Health House, Los Angeles, USA, 1927 9. Mies van der Rohe: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, 1968

The universal nature of these characteristics is evident in the buildings of modernist style across the world, the point of difference lies in the aspect of the context, climate, culture and topography of their respective location.

Most of the architects succeeded in adapting to the context, while most remained within the set framework. This gave a set of examples for one to study and find the balance between achieving the universal while still maintain the identity of the local. The regionalism of each building under Modern Movement becomes a critical viewpoint for any discourse to happen.

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2.1.2

MODERN BUILDINGS AS RECENT PAST

As one looks upon an urban scape today, the recent past of the Modern Movement surviving the rapid urbanization, it still emanates individuality by standing out. Modern buildings around the world today are phasing into a vulnerable state of existence. There is an emerging discussion and discourses taking place to find the relevance of the modernist cities and buildings today. An international non-profit organization to protect Modern Architecture and Urbanism, called DOCOMOMO International (International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) was founded in 1988

by Dutch architects Hubert-Jan Henket and Wessel de Jonge in Eindhoven.

It took inspiration from the work of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites that concerns with the protection and conservation of historical building and sites. Since then Docomomo holds biennial international conferences that allows the people related to the conservation address and research issues relating to the state of the modernist legacy.

Maristella Casciato, the chair of Docomomo in the introduction of its 10th international conference in 2008, stated that when taking up the conservation or restoration project, the main objective should significantly focus on the characteristics of the architecture (e.g., respecting the character of the designer, his language, his relationship to time, materials and the commitment to the collective memory) while remaining compatible with the existing. She also adds that the challenge today is to envision changes without betraying the legacy and the spirit of the architecture of the twentieth century. It also allows an opportunity to bring the architect and the restorer together to course through this complex process and integrate the historic value of the building (Casciato, 2008).

Fig9.

Neue refurbishment

The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin’s Kulturforum is one the icons of the twentieth century architecture. David Chipperfield Architects are currently 12

Nationalgalerie under

by David Chipperfield Architects, 2019-2020

on completion of the refurbishment of the Nationalgalerie. Designed by Mies van der rohe, the only building realized in Europe after his emigration to the USA, the gallery has been dedicated to art since its opening in 1968.

The architect’s approach towards refurbishment of the building remains clear in its intention. The existing structural components were retrofitted by removing, restoring and reinstalling them in their precise placement.

The architects aim for maximum preservation of the existing fabric without visually comprising the building’s original appearance.

Fig10.

Neue Nationalgalerie under refurbishment by David Chipperfield Architects, 2019-2020 Fig11. Neue Germany

Nationalgalerie,

Berlin,

Their intention statement states that,“The key to the complex planning process for this project is finding a balance between the requirements of current museum usage and the importance of the Neue Nationalgalerie as a listed monument. Though the essential new interventions remain subordinate to the existing design of the building, they are nevertheless discreetly legible as contemporary elements. The refurbishment does not represent a new interpretation, but rather a respectful repair of this landmark of the International Style.” (David Chipperfield Architects, 2018).

The Neue Nationalgalerie becomes one of the first cases of the refurbishment of twentieth century architecture that aims to retain and respect the original design without intervening on a radical scale. Mies van der Rohe is known for its clean structure and transparent design, therefore the architect’s decision to visually intervene at a minimal level makes sense. The building is yet to host its opening back to the city.

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2.2

POST-INDEPENDENCE ARCHITECTURE: IMPRESSION OF MODERN MOVEMENT IN INDIA

While the world was under reform post World War II, India was defining itself as an independent free nation during 1947. The struggle of achieving independence wasn’t met without the horrors of riots and massacre leading to the partition of India and Pakistan. The first instated Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took upon his vision of building a free nation that was modern, ready to face the second of half of the twentieth century, by reinforcing itself with technological and educational advancements.

His vision for economic and social development can be summarized in three words: industrialization, modernisation and westernization. Postindependence era in India saw a wave of modernism that brought some of the iconic pieces of modern architecture to the world. It also witnessed the rise of some Indian architects taking lead in shaping up the new free India. Architects in India were aware of the upheaval European art and architecture, the proposals of the Bauhaus, the work of Frank Lloyd Wright in USA and Japan alongside the writings of Le Corbusier in Europe. It was only after independence, were the new ideas absorbed into architectural practices but limited to smaller number of firms (Lang J. T., 2002) To understand the origin of modernism in India it is important to understand the circumstances of architecture and architects both before and after 1947. Jon T Lang in his book A Concise History of Modern Architecture in India, explains the scenario in which he categorizes the process of modernisation in three parts. According to him three sets of architects and architecture concerns here. He explains in the book that, “First, there was the work of the firms whose architecture evolved from a somewhat conservative 1930s outlook towards a Modernist approach. Second, and intellectually allied to those firms, were the Indian architects whose work had grown out of the Art Deco. Third, and more influentially, there was the work of Indian architects who received their education abroad during the post-Second World War burst of enlightenment thinking. It is this third group which most interesting here because its members set the intellectual pace for Indian architecture during the first three decades of Independence while the other two groups set the scene.” (Lang J. T., 2002).

Losing Lahore as the capitol of the state of Punjab to Pakistan, Nehru’s mission for modern India was mostly witnessed by the redefinition and introduction of Chandigarh city as the new urban ideal. To express ‘Nation’s faith in future’ none of the existing architectural styles of IndoSaracenic tainted with colonialism or the obsolete ‘Hindu’ style adapted in Bhubaneshwar planning by Otto Königsberger would have been appropriate (Metcalf & Metcalf, 2006). Instead, becoming the first country in the world Nehru invited the renowned French architect Le Corbusier providing him an opportunity to give a concrete expression to his theories by planning and designing the capitol of Punjab, Chandigarh. The early fifties saw the beginning of association of Le Corbusier with India, initially in Chandigarh and then seen in Ahmedabad. Content by the new commission that brought Le Corbusier to realize his principles at a larger scale he recorded his feeling by writing “It is the hour that I have been waiting for - India, that human and profound civilization - to construct a capital. Urbanism is the activity of society. Capital is the spirit of a nation.” (Bagha, 2019).

It wasn’t long after when the affluent millowners invited Le Corbusier to visit the city of Ahmedabad, also known as the Manchester of East because of its flourishing textile industry during the British Raj. This visit led him to contributed some of his most important work to India by designing iconic villas, a museum and a building for business and culture in Ahmedabad.

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Fig12. Le Corbusier during his visit to Chandigarh with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

Inarguably it can be said that Le Corbusier’s association with India acted as the biggest catalyst towards governments, industries, institutes, organizations opting to commission architects (mostly the third group defined by Jon T Lang) having similar vision (Lang J. T., 2002). It was in 1960s the political, bureaucratic and the industrial elite emerged as the major patrons for modern architecture.

Fig13. The Secretariat by Le Corbusier in Chandigarh Fig14. Le Corbusier with plan of the Capitol Complex, Chandigarh Fig15. Ahmedabad Textile Mill Owners’ Association House (ATMA House), designed

by Le Corbusier in 1954

2.2.1

THREAT AND VULNERABLE POSITION OF POST-INDEPENDENCE ARCHITECTURE Remarks by William J.R. Curtis:

“Even so, there are numerous historical sites which remain unprotected.

India possesses a vast artistic and architectural patrimony but nothing like enough is being done to look after it. Many of the museums in the country are in a disgraceful state. Now that there is considerable wealth in some sectors of the society there is no excuse for such neglect. In a situation where masterpieces of tenth century sculpture are left languishing in underfunded and semi abandoned provincial museums, it is scarcely surprising that public consciousness is so little attuned to the long-term value of recent buildings 15

of quality.” (Curtis, Nothing is Sacred: Threats to Modern Masterpieces in India, 2014).

Economic and Political: Having said that the nation over the years of its development has seen several political, economic, social and religious crises that has time and again proven harmful to its built environment. The controversial chapter of the tearing down of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya is a piece of memory so contentious that till date it is used an example to inflict religious differences amongst people. The act of demolition in contemporary present speaks more about power and dominance than discussing the possibility of a new creation. It isn’t only limited to one habitat or one building but rather it’s a pattern of disarrayed decisions by the bodies in power that puts all of them at risk. In current circumstances, the threats come from the uncontrolled profiteering, land speculation and price rise of real estate infused with political corruption (Curtis, Protecting Modern Masterpieces in India, 2014). For e.g. the 600 acres of textile mill land, in central Mumbai led to one of the worst rapid development the city has ever seen. It resulted into the massive demolition of the industrial heritage of Bombay province which flourished during British Raj. There is a definite loss of translation that occurs between what is needed versus what is wanted, that is the governmental body’s vision in the name of development and giving back people a better environment to flourish in. Over the years the political scenario across India has been so controversial that essential development only occurs for the sake of making profit. In lieu of that, we forgot to appreciate the diversity in culture and its legacy which as a nation we are known of in the world.

Societal: The trouble with the idea of legacy is that in India, people are staunchly habituated to the patriarchal notion of legacy, that it is nothing beyond what has been passed to them in generations. That legacy is only limited to the habitat they are involved in. It also highlights the materialistic side of Indian culture. There is a collective lack of understanding of what cultural legacy means. This perception triggers the difficulty of acceptance for bringing in change but still maintaining the essence of the original. Instead of evolving in time there’s a certain rigidness which grows stronger day by day fuelled by conflicts, communalism, consumerism of everyday life thereby creating a rather conservative environment in contemporary time.

One can say that spiritual and cultural values does not count much in the society that is driven by consumerist and materialist approach.

The state of modern architecture across India today is in a state that we cannot take pride in. The only way ahead is to identify them as heritage and develop strategies for restoring it. When it comes to twentieth century the term ‘architectural heritage’ hardly exists in both Indian legislative and mentalities. The approach to protect a building as monument can rather be seen biased when compared chronologically to the twentieth century.

William J.R. Curtis further states in his article that, “In contemporary India nothing is sacred (even historical sites and museums are left to go to pot).

In the age of greed and privatisation the public realm is wrecked and the idealism of the founding fathers is undermined. Historical and cultural memory matter less and less: today it is the price of everything and the value of nothing.” (Curtis, Nothing is Sacred: Threats to Modern Masterpieces in India, 2014). It is ironic that in a country where people are prone to associate the word ‘sacred’ so easily to any living and non-living object, fail to relate to one of the most important aspect: the built environment and its cultural legacies. One cannot help but notice the dire need of 16

actions to protect, to dignify, to preserve and to reinvigorate the modern buildings in time. It needs an obligatory response from the conservation bodies to take under consideration and broaden the concept of heritage by not limiting themselves chronologically. There also requires a formal legislative response from the government of India that officially identifies and documents the structures by giving them the status of legacy. After all modern heritage is that piece of history, which represents our nation as a free country, secular country, and hence needs to be respected in a way that can carry forward our culture while evolving in the process.

2.3

CULTURAL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA: ORIGIN

Birth of a cultural institution in India was a result of the change in the ideology that occurred after the change in political system post-independence.

Before the British invaded India, the history of Indian culture and politics shows deep influences of the Mughal, Persian and European Empires. The political system of kingship sees several confederacies or regional kingdoms establishing, existing together and battling for the territorial expansion of their empire through wars. The coexistence and cross-fertilization of these confederacies in India gave one of its most spectacular collection of cultures that flourished as communities. The Mughal period was thus one of farreaching political, economic, and social reconfigurations. The flexibility and openness that Mughal institutions contributed, many historians today prefer to term it as ‘Early Modern’(Metcalf & Metcalf, 2006). The richness of the cultural synchronicity has given the nation a wealth of heritage to cherish upon. Even when the interlacing of these cultures weaved a unique landscape it still retained its peculiarity through regionalism. The traces of influences can be witnessed in crafts and built environments of the vernacular. Rooted Indian architecture can be seen as an absorption of various cultural influences over time in history that is manifested into an expression.

Colonialism in India and its political ideology sought to monotonize the country under one power. This meant the loss of individuality to centralization of power. The country struggled to survive under the impending Colonial rule. While the East India Company lured the Indian sub-continent through overseas commerce, it fought the Mughal Empire to its height until they ruled out the possibility of conquest by other seekers from Europe. The success of East India Company lies in their conquest and attaining control of the Bengal state, one of the richest provinces in India, in 1757. The two centuries of British Raj brought in the establishment of the central administration and system. The gradual control in their power, saw dissolvement of independent hold of regional provinces to a formulation of states that were controlled by the British. This also meant the introduction of formal idea of institutions that administered to the need of the state as well as the people, which lacked in the scenario before colonial rule.

Though throughout the Raj, the formal practice benefited and catered the central power more than the people of the nation. Thus, when India coveted its freedom back from the colonials in 1947, the first and foremost step of the nation was to establish a democracy.

Democratic system meant to reposition the power to the people and thus the constitution of India was established. Though the freedom was achieved, it wasn’t without the struggles of facing issues of religion and casteism. The Colonial rule broke the sense of independent cultural identities to an extent of being typecast and objectified. The vernacular way of life that embodied culture into habitat and built environment was lost in 17

the colonial landscape of urban cities. To emerge out of the imperialist era and pave the way for modern life, the elites along with the newly founded democratic government of India, sought to preserve the cultural heritage and by commissioning emerging Indian architects to create and design institutions that celebrated and cultivated the local arts.

2.3.1

POTENTIAL OF PUBLIC REALM IN CULTURAL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

MEANING AND ARCHITECTURE: Urban spaces in the Indian context has seen its definition changing over time. While most of the rural side gives a glimpse into the traditions of a vernacular setting, cities, on the other hand, have adapted into creating a variety of spaces that can be coined under the term of the public domain or urban space. It was after independence when privatization took over, India saw a rise in several institutions all across the country, it also saw the birth of new institutions that addressed its cultural heritage. The introduction of the democratic governance initiated a dialogue between the politicians, architects and planners to envision the new developments, thus arose the importance of architectural and planning fraternity in India. Extensive developments occurred post-independence during which the concept of Public, Semi-Public and Private arose. Amongst, the rise of architects and planners, the most important contribution was given by Patrick Geddes, the Scottish planner, who advised the government to not to overlook the socio-cultural development amidst racing for the modern way. He believed that the true meaning of public realm in Indian context can be trace back to its rural setting where the village square, open spaces, shaded plinths and steps constituted the socio-cultural public realm (Kothi, 2018).

There were five distinct approaches of architectural expressions were identified during the Post-Independence period: (Sebastian & K.R., 2018) 1. Plastic or geometric forms exploiting the potential of concrete used to express distinct and bold forms, volumes and shapes growing out of functional needs.

2. New language of exposed brick and concrete.

3. Bold and aggressive articulation of structural elements- an expression of Brutalism like Kenzo Tange, James Sterling, Moshe Safdie.

4. Sensitive approach to harmonizing with the micro environment that is reminiscent of the best traditions of F.L.Wright and Richard Neutra.

5. Regionalism – an amalgamation of modernism with traditional experience of town planning, neighbourhood clustering, harmonize with nature, climate control and using local materials.

The emergence of cultural institutions across India found itself building a special typology in architecture that were interpreted into different modernist approach by the architectural fraternity. The institutions mainly consisted of multiple programs like museums, art galleries, arts and cultural academies, theatre and auditorium halls, pavilions and exhibition complexes and centre for arts and crafts (both for local and national).

Programmatically the institutions focused on bringing the craft, the worker classes the skilled people together with the patrons or the elites who could help them manifest their abilities into a formal practice. Even though the number of cultural institutions developed post-independence is low compared to institutions that were made for education, commerce, private industries and governmental purposes, it certainly had the potential to cater to public realm of the cities. While the approach of few architects towards these institutions followed the Functionalism of the Modern Movement, 18

Charles Correa’s architecture was one of the first to bridge the disconnect and the inhuman aspect of the modernist movement which critics raised their concern on. He successfully interpreted the Indian values into his design and transformed spaces that has characteristics which Geddes advises to instate (Fig16). Charles Correa’s attempts to create a modern regional language for India were successfully appreciated and accepted by the mass. He explored the expression of modernism keeping in mind the context, the climate and the culture, he explored his principles from the scale of affordable public housing schemes, urban planning proposals for city of Bombay to cultural spaces in public domain across India.

RELEVANCE AND POTENTIAL: As cinemas, restaurants and shopping centres dominated their way into public realm, the meaning of public space and institutions suddenly shifted towards the notion of entertaining, upon which the attitude of Indians towards the cultural public institutions became rather educational. This shift in attitude was a result of several factors, including globalization and technological advancements. The meaning of physical public realm only remained to activities that are related to health (jogging, exercising) or celebrating festivals, thus limiting the typology to parks, riverfronts and open spaces. Thereby the relevance of the cultural public institutions as public space receded and the buildings were perceived more as private realm rather than public.

The potential of these cultural institutions lies in two aspects: one, which programmatically attracts a particular section of the user group and the other being its architecture. As one knows, that it was only post-independence did the nation see the birth of these institutions, hence majority of the buildings were built under the influences of Modern Movement and strong architectural concepts. Thus, architecturally speaking these institutions holds potential to fall under the category modern heritage and legacy and holds the potential to provide far more than the functions it was originally designed for.

Fig16. Charles Correa: Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, India, 1986

The potential lies in reinventing the existing buildings to create them as urban spaces of the city. As discussed in the previous section, the threat to the modern legacies are to be concerned for. The threat of demolition or insensitive interventions is as harmful to the public realm as it is for the legacy.

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2.3.2

REINVIGORATING PUBLIC REALM THROUGH REUSE

Since August of 2019, Kala Academy designed by Charles Correa (in 1970) is under threat of demolition by the state government of Goa (Veigas, 2019).

A prominent cultural centre in Panjim, has been successfully functioning over the years hosting activities, events and conferences celebrating the unity of its culture. The academy sits on the bank of Mandovi River with attractive lush green front separating it from the busy moving traffic. The human scale that can be widely experienced in his architecture, here culminates to address both formal and the informal sides of culture into public domain. The building allows people to spatially transit towards the river by passing through sets of courtyards that defines these various formalities. It is ironic to see that the most functioning spaces are under threat because of lack of understanding and importance towards modern heritage.

Fig17. Charles Correa: Riverside Elevation of Kala Academy, Goa, India, 1970 Fir18. Charles Correa: Entrance courtyard, Kala Academy, Goa, India, 1970

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Reinventing the meaning of cultural institutions in present day can be taken advantage to create a new notion of public realm. Strategies of rejuvenating a building or an urban fabric can be of two fundamental nature: permanent interventions and temporal interventions.

In the case of the city of Ahmedabad, one of the core cities to have influential architecture of modernism from international architects, have found temporal nature of interventions in its modernist institutions that have certainly brought in a new perspective to the building. The events in reference were conducted in buildings designed by Le Corbusier – the city museum, Sanskar Kendra and Ahmedabad Textile Mills Owners Association building. Both these buildings in recent years have been used for temporary city scale events.

- Sanskar Kendra hosted the Abhivyakti Festival in 2015, a city level cultural fest that celebrates the performing arts, music, visual arts and theatre.

- Whereas the ATMA House has been hosting an annual three-day design convention Raw Collaborative for students, architects, designers and educators of architectural fraternity of India since 2017.

Fig19. ATMA House by Le Corbusier: Temporary Exposition in 2017 Fig20. ATMA House by Le Corbusier: Temporary Exposition in 2017 Fig21. Temporal use of ATMA House for a design convention

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As discussed in the previous section, India’s heritage is still quite young, which also means that majority of the buildings are occupied and functioning for its intended purpose. However, the maintenance and the care of these buildings is a separate issue to discuss, but most of the buildings are under private ownership who solely is responsible for its life. (See the list) Thereby the cases that addresses reinvention of modern buildings are limited to, and the cases that shall be discussed further are the selected ones – in this case, cultural public institution - that highlights their potential to serve the public realm. Relevant strategies shall be proposed respectively for each case.

While on other hand there are examples of adaptive reuse which focuses on creating contemporary cultural public institution, limited to only certain user groups in a different architectural typology, yet these projects have given a new dimension to the public life of a city.

ALEMBIC CITY, BARODA Alembic City is a new public space which was earlier an industrial fabric on the outskirts of Baroda city. It has been adapted into work studios, multipurpose exhibition halls, art gallery and residential quarters for artists. It also has multipurpose spaces for hosting temporal events such as music concerts and flea markets. While the approach to the building is clear by addressing its industrial character and textures, programmatically it focuses more on the people belonging to the creative fraternity. It is a public space, but holistically it isn’t completely open for people of different interests. Other projects focusing on the reusing the industrial fabric, such as mill compounds of Lower Parel in Bombay or Dhan Mill Compounds in New Delhi, it is yet limited to certain mass of the people. The projects mentioned only focuses to attract the upper economic class of people of the city.

Fig22. Images showing exhibition gallery, corridor and exterior plaza of Alembic City in Baroda, India, an industrial fabric refurbished by Karan Grover and Associates

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PART III / STRATEGY

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3.1

URBAN REGENERATION FOR PUBLIC REALM: ENTITIES AND CONSTITUENTS

The aim of the designers when dealing with spaces of public domain is to create intervention that activates and benefits the public realm economically, socially and environmentally. The relation between a cultural public institution and the city can be found in the public realm between it.

Fig23. Visual representation of Public Realm constituting in context of Cultural Public Institutions and the City.

Fig23. Visual representation of activities extending in to Public Realm

The intervention of urban regeneration focuses on activating the between space of the city and the institution. It constitutes of three entities: the building, the people and the city. What creates the public realm here is the relationship between these three entities. It can also be looked as the transition of people between the building and the city. The public part of the building complex, generally open spaces, courtyards, ground floor are one of the first spaces that can serve for the possibility as public realm. Therefore, the accessibility to both ends becomes a crucial point in planning of the urban space.

The function of the realm can contextually differ according to the need of the people, the space and the city.

The response to the public realm can be in following scenarios: 1) extension of the institutional sphere to the city and 2) extension of the city sphere to the institution.

In case of scenario 1, the Centre Pompidou is an exemplary example of the extension of the institution’s activities into the public sphere. The radical 24

project that brought about an influential change into museum and cultural buildings dedicates the ground floor as the public realm. The decision of the architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano was to create a part of the city within the building volume. The public interior allows one to transit from the building to the plaza and the city freely. Today the plaza is the most densely populated space of the city. They faced heavy criticism for the style of structure that was completely transparent and naked by ideating the concept of museum as movement itself. Rogers states that, “Politics and public space are densely intertwined, are about our public life. Open space for the public has always been political space. For instance, Athenian agora to Zuccotti Park and Tienanmen Square are places where the commons come together as equals to protest, to debate, to argue, to effect change.�

Fig24. Elevation: Pompidou Centre, Paris, France Fig25. Google Earth View: Pompidou Centre and the plaza in urbanscape of Paris Fig26. Public acitivities in the plaza of Pompidou Centre, Paris

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In case of scenario 2, the passage way for bicycles through the heart of Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is to the point reference of city embedding into the institution. The people of Amsterdam heavily relied on their passageway which was closed for sometime in museum’s initial renovation due to which their circulation to the centre of the city was prolonged. The passageway through the museum leads the cyclists directly into the heart of the city. Curt Y Ortiz, the architect in the latest renovation reopened the passageway and rearranged the entrance to the museums in two parts within it. Today, it maintains the bicycle traffic and provides a unique experience for a visitor to the museum.

The intervention that regenerates the space ideally should be such that benefits the three entities of this equation. The manifestation of the intervention can be conducted by designing the elements of the public interior. These elements of public interior refer to intervention at design detail that allows people to function in the public realm: e.g. benches, way finding elements, etc.

Fig27.

Passageway, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1936

Fig28.

Transformed Passageway, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2013

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3.1.1

PUBLIC REALM: ACTIVITIES AND ELEMENTS

ACTIVITIES: Public realm constitutes of activities that are supported and generated by physical architectural elements. According to Danish urban designer Jan Gehl, there are three kinds of activities that occurs in public realm: Necessary Activities, Optional Activities and Social Activities. He explains the three types in his acclaimed book Life Between Buildings: Using Public Spaces: (Macalaster College) Necessary Activities: These are the activities that would occur in everyday and in weather. It includes everyday tasks where a person extends his use to public spaces by walking or biking, e.g. commuting to work, or to school, walking a dog or going for household chores such as shopping for groceries or other necessities.

Optional Activities: These activities occurs on desire at favourable time or place. e.g. lounging outside. It may vary according to the weather and may be less likely to occur in unfavourable weather conditions. The frequency of optional activities also depends on other factors apart from weather. In dense urban settings of low-quality optional activities exists at minimum level whereas in a good physical environment, they occur in higher frequency.

Social Activities: There kind of activities emerges in a place where people congregate and socialize. Such kind of activity tends to animate the public space. These kinds of activities include children playing or group of friends conversing, or acknowledging which can occur in a wide variety of settings.

Gehl says that these activities are “resultant� because they frequently evolve from activities in the other two categories as people in the same space meet. Similar to optional activities, social activities are conditioned by the physical setting of the space.

ELEMENTS: A making of a space requires composition of the fundamental architectural elements that are arranged together to create a form or a space. The following diagram shows the identification of elements of space making that constitutes public realm. These elements are derived from several studies and observations of both designed and vernacular spaces in India context.

Fig29. Identifying elements of space making for activities in Public Domain

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3.2

CASES OF URBAN REGENERATION

The three cases of urban regeneration address different approach of adaptive reuse in order to activate the public realm. The cases discuss the intervention that addresses the public sphere. All the cases are cultural public institutions that are currently active and functioning in their respective contexts. The analysis of these case studies will try to determine conditions and factors of the intervention that makes them viable. This analysis further helps build the proposal for the site of Premabhai Hall in Ahmedabad, India.

3.2.1

SESC POMPEIA

LOCATION: SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil ARCHITECT: Lina Bo Bardi TRANSFORMATION: 1977-1986 HISTORY AND CONTEXT: SESC (Social Service of Commerce) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1948 in Brazil. The aim of the organization is to improve welfare and quality of life for the working-class community by providing them facilities related to sports, health and culture.

Pompeia in Sao Paolo was initially a place of farms, but when industries started growing around, it gradually became a working-class neighbourhood.

Today, Pompeia is a thriving district with residential, commercial and industrial area coexisting in its urban fabric. When SESC first acquired the building of a former drum factory, Irmaos Mauser, they began to adapt the site in the existing setting in an informal way. When Lina Bo Bardi was commissioned in for the project in 1977, she was struck by the way people rebreathed a new life in a typical setting of a factory. She was inspired by the raw and honest approach towards the use of the building and wanted to maintain the same in her intervention.

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Fig30. Google Earth View: Location of SESC Pompeia and the nature of its neighbourhood

INTERVENTION: Her approach towards the building began by setting an on-site office that encouraged collaborative and participatory approach with its user. She stayed involved even after the completion of the project. The project involves intervention at two points: the interior in existing and the new tower.

THE INTERIOR: The factory is stripped down to its raw character to expose the bricks, the structural tectonics by method of sandblasting and removal of plaster.

The former factory is converted into public interiors by creating the fixed interventions in industrial materials and concrete, while the smaller scale interventions are delicate, vibrant and colorful. The urban furniture inside the library, waiting or multipurpose hall, workshop and cafeteria spaces are mindfully designed till minor details allowing it to be mobile and adaptable to the space. This allows the users to create different settings for multiple functions and thereby adding to the dynamics of the building.

Programmatically all the activities taking place in the building are color coded for practical purposes. To provide different levels of privacy for functions like library, reading spaces and board games, the architect plays with low walls and mezzanines. Additionally, the artificial pond and the fireplace allows people to gather and gives a homely feeling to the site.

Fig31. SESC Pompeia: Zoning Plan of Spatial and Functional Interventions

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THE TOWER: Lina Bo Bardi planned additional buildings to accommodate more activities to the existing centre by designing two Brutalist style concrete towers housing sport facilities. The activities for sports were divided into two tower connected by elevated bridges, since the site fell under the unbuildable zone of the area. The sports activities are allowed on basis on membership.

Inspired by the rawness of the building, the two additional towers are constructed in concrete where she left randomly placed holes and openings that act as natural ventilation meanwhile the concrete surfaces are left rough and unfinished which adds to the idea of ‘incompleteness’.

The exterior space between the buildings serves as a wooden platform that allows people to sunbath and is used for several occasions such as art installations and festivals. The use of color ‘red’ in the site is apparent which is strategically used all over the site to bring out the essence of the structure.

OCCURRENCES: The universality required for a public realm in SESC Pompeia is extremely prominent. The success of the project can be given to various factors here: Vernacular Adaptation: Perhaps the strongest characteristic of the space goes to the fact that the users, the people adapted and created the public sphere based on their instincts and responding to their needs. It was the beginning of establishment of local identity. This allowed a clear vision for the architect and an insight into an already functioning space. The approach inclusive of participatory approach led to a harmonious understanding 30

Fig32. Clockwise Images of Interior interventions in SESC Pompeia : 32.1. Street between the existing factory used for circulation and open space for outdoor activities.

32.2. Pockets of workshop areas set within the factory, organized and facilitated with storage.

32.3. Multipurpose Hall with loose furniture and artifical water pond to break the monotony of the floor.

32.4. Low walls defining spaces for reading, playing games, meetings or gathering.

Structural elements, trusses of the roof are highlighted with color red.

Fig33. Images of the new tower intervention 33.1. Colorful urban furniture outside the the tower entrance, placed along the ramp along side the wooden deck street.

33.2. The air bridge connecting the two blocks of the sports tower.

between the neighbourhood and the architect.

Through design by maintaining the idea of raw, honest and incompleteness that gave the site its most important quality, the new interventions are extremely well designed which seems to fit within the environment rather than overpower or dominate. The modesty is achieved in several design decisions such as of - keeping the materials unfinished and raw - by introducing elements that are colorful which resonates with every user group - by providing them flexible use of space through furniture - by keeping a simple entry to the centre that isn’t intimidating - by allowing functional freedom to the user and not defining it for them - by including elements of the local folk art in smaller details.

Fig34. Acitivities in SESC Pompeia 34.1. The wooden deck at the south end of the complex stretches along to link the main street to the sport tower entrance.

People use this street for sunbathing and relaxing and other purposes.

34.2. The main street in festival. Both the street of the complex are used as exhibition spaces.

To prevent creation of private realms within a public sphere is supported by the lack of defined spaces, by use of low walls and maintaining visual connections through different kind of openings, thereby leading the activities to occur in public eye. Hence, it encourages public sphere instead of private. SESC Pompeia’s method of vernacular adaptation through people and through design, maintaining the neutrality makes this a strong case to understand public realm.

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3.2.2

RIJKSMUSEUM

LOCATION: Amsterdam, Netherlands ARCHITECT: Cruz y Ortiz (architectural design), Van Hoogevest (restoration, Wilmotte & Associes (interiors), Copijn Tuin-en Landschapsarchitecten (gardens) TRANSFORMATION: 2000-2013 HISTORY AND CONTEXT: In 1860s Amsterdam was under conception of creating a local museum for the city. The decision was supported by the commune and eventually the national government. The design development was commissioned to Pierre Cuypers who conceptualized the museum as a gate to the city; the Amsterdam South was under development then. The museum officially opened in 1885 standing guard to the museumplein. Cuypers designed a rectangular building in Neo-gothic organization, materiality and decoration.

Organizing spaces as a series of rooms in succession without corridors, two courtyards and staircases attached with the building. To allow the flow of traffic to the centre, the city of Amsterdam proposed for a passageway through the museum. While Cuypers proposed to use the passageway as the main entrance and then an entrance to the interior from the sides of the passage, instead two entrances were built on both sides of passageway on the main façade. The decision on passageway was important for the people of the city. It allowed them for a direct and shorter way of commute back and forth. Over the time the museum went through numerous renovations which included removal of some decorations, by 1969 both the courtyards were filled in and almost all the rooms were refurbished. In 1984, the first attempt to restore Cuyper’s original design of free courtyards and restore some decorations took place. Eventually a masterplan was created by 1990 and a competition was organized (Plevoets & Cleempoel, 2019).

INTERVENTION: The competition was won by a Spanish architectural firm Cruz y Ortiz in 2001.

The much-appreciated proposal by the architects focused on restoring the original volumes from Cuypers design. It included the reactivation of the passageway which now was crucial for the cyclists of the city. The museum underwent its latest renovation where the courtyards were opened back to their original volume, the passageway was reactivated meanwhile the entrance to the museum was moved inside the passageway on the two sides which opens up in the East-West courtyard. The restructuring of the entrances with glass façade allows glimpses of the massive East-West courtyard while passing through the passage meanwhile acting as the main

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Fig35. Entrance to the museum and the passageway from the museumplein.

Fig36. Stairs connecting the courtyard and the passageway.

smuseum

Fig37. Aerial View: the Cycle Path passing through the museum and connecting to other junctions

m, Netherlands

n´s title: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Museums and Galleries, Rehabilitation Commercial Programmadirectie Het Nieuwe Rijksmuseum 45.000 m2 2001-2013 Built 184.738.186 ₏ Fig38. Conceptual Sketch by the architect Cruz y Ortiz

Fig39. Section representing the spaces and connectivity of the passage and the courtyard

entrances to the museum for people to access on foot. The courtyards are part of the public sphere with free accessibility. To maintain the connection between the courtyards, the foundation below the passageway were renovated and made sleeker. While there were other renovations made within the museum to create a balance between the collection, the architecture and the decoration, the intervention opts to create cleaner subtle spaces trying to shift the focus on the growing collection. Frescoes and decorations of few of the important spaces, like gallery of Night Watch, was overlooked by an Austrian artist. The museum reopened in 2013, and has since received recognition for its clean spatial planning.

OCCURRENCES: Amsterdam is known for its passion for bicycle since time. The response is evident in their urban planning. Hence, when Rijksmuseum was undergoing its latest renovation, the people of the city demanded to restore the original proposal of opening the passage to the city. And for the benefit of the museum and the cyclists of the city, the museum passageway was restored for both museum entrance and the bike path. This restoration has proven 33

to be most useful the for the citizens, but also the visitors by providing an experience to remember of walking through the museumplein to the passage, the heart of the museum. The renovation of the passageway by the architects takes the city into consideration and adding to its infrastructure.

The passageway is open twenty-four hours while the entrances to the museums have restricted timings. The courtyard is well lit by a special chandelier that takes care of the lighting and the acoustics of the place merging with the diffused light from above.

The strategy that attracts the visitors apart from the collection is through a souvenir shop and a cafeteria to experience in the grandeur of the Neogothic restored courtyards. The passageway is the most crowded space today with pedestrians and street musicians adding to the acoustics of it. The viability of the project in respect to the public sphere resonates strongest in the decisions of - dedicating a part for city’s infrastructure : the passageway for cyclists - opening up the courtyard, an attractive feature of the Neo-gothic for public activities.

34

Fig40. Passageway under renovation, the lower space is opened up to connect the courtyards Fig41. Image of the courtyard pre and post renovation Fig42. The glass openings visually connects the passage and the courtyard.

Fig43. The revolving doors on each side of the passageway acts as the entrance to the courtyard

3.2.3

TATE MODERN LOCATION: London, United Kingdom ARCHITECT: Herzog & de Meuron TRANSFORMATION: 1998 - 2000

HISTORY AND CONTEXT: London’s Bankside Power Station remained derelict since 1981 untill 2000. The former power house was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in two phases between 1947 and 1963. The composition of three parallel volumes consists of the boiler house parallel to Thames river facing North, the turbines in the middle and the switch house to the south. The switch house is presently functioning providing electricity outside London since 1982 when the power house was decommissioned. By the 1980s, Tate had outgrown its Millbank Gallery which led to the decision of separating the international modern and contemporary art in London. This led them to search for properties, preferably existing building which can allow them to by the strict laws and codes meant for a new building. Hence, Bankside Power Station was chosen which received crowd funding. It was a politically motivated decision to regenerate valuable inner-city real estate (Kreidel, 2013). To find the best architect for the project, Tate organised an international scale competition where the winner, Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron’s design proposal was selected.

Fig44. Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge from the north bank

INTERVENTION: The transformation began with removal of machinery from the Power Station until it was left as a brick and steel skin. The architect’s proposal aligned with the museum’s intention of minimal exterior alterations.

Herzog & de Meuron opted to enhance the urban character of the building without deterring from its original form. They intended for it to remain a rather experiential and visual space in itself. The only apparent alteration on the exterior is the light beam, a horizontal glass box set on top of the roof balancing the verticality of the dark brick masonry of the chimney.

By avoiding to take the attention away from the art pieces, the interiors were left heavy with cast iron grills, unfinished wooden floors and heavy staircase rails which harmonized with the original character.

The architects intend to allow free movement from the all the directions 35

which currently is supported by the installation of the Millennium Bridge connecting the north bank while a popping visual reference of orange painted lampposts leading from the Southwark underground station leads to the south entrance of the building. The urban character is further enhanced by fragments of the green zones surrounding the base of the site. Perhaps the most iconic and the important modification to the building according to the architect is the ramp starting from on the west side. It leads down to the entrance level of Boiler House where the urban passage connects all its internal areas such as shops. The ramp is not only an entrance but a prominent meeting point of the Bankside that leads one inside the Turbine Hall. It makes an important intervention to the Tate Modern as it makes the space lively and public allowing the pedestrians to walk through the hall and enjoy its lively atmosphere without visiting the museum exhibits. The future interventions involve opening of the south façade as one of the entrances. The Turbine Hall, one of the core spaces in the complex, consists of linear high volume with light beam on the top providing a diffused uniform light all over. While the ramp allows people to ease into the building, the platform on the upper level allows one to marvel the scale of the turbine hall. The turbine hall houses a large face which project information about the museum and upcoming exhibitions. As busy as the ramp of the hall gets with people, the verticality of the hall retains a certain silence, and over the years that has engaged various artists to exhibit and install art that responds to the space.

OCCURRENCES: Tate Modern is one of the most visited contemporary art museums today. The scale of the building sitting on the river front of the Thames catches an easy visual attention from the north bank, meanwhile the inviting green spaces creates an urban character around the foot of the building serves more than just the entrance to the museum. The strategy of creating open entrances adaptable to people’s movement in the city creates an opportunity for association to the public realm. The ramp at the west entrance gravitationally pulls people inside and creates a playful unregulated atmosphere. The pull of the ramp and the perpendicular pull of the hall balances out and lets the user pause in the space. The advantage 36

Fig45. Google Earth View: Highlighted spaces of the immediate public area surrounding the building of Tate Modern

Fig46. The Turbine Hall in 90s, before transformation Fig47. Danish design collective Superflex’s art installation in Turbine Hall promoting social interaction.

Fig48. The Turbine Hall with visitors Fig49. The Weather Project by Robert Holt encapsulating by using the volume of the hall Fig50. The ramp in the Turbine Hall leading to Boiler Room

of the Turbine Hall as a free public space remains in its adaptable quality that has hosted variety of art exhibits and installation since its opening.

This flexibility allowing to create different experiences within the volume has engaged both artists and user to experience the see space in many perspectives. The expanse of open space on the riverbank compared to the dense fabric of the south becomes a welcome break. Tate Modern works as a landmark, in reference to the city, but it also becomes an everyday 37

destination that caters to the optional or social activities (Gehl’s Three Kinds of Activities) of the locals. The key design decisions that makes this case a relevant study of public realm is - accessibility to the museum from all sides - different entrances with different character - extension of museum sphere as part of the city through its activities - a visually muted exterior retaining the industrial history - the neutrality of the Turbine Hall that serves the museum as well the city

Fig51. Section through Turbine Hall, relation between the bank and the entrance

Tate Modern’s adaptation to an existing building was a political strategy to bypass strict laws and codes that applied to a new building. The reuse of an industrial building for different purpose connotes gentrification of a neighbourhood that represents significant changes in the urban fabric. The massing which Scott translated, Herzog & de Meuron have added to this with strong visual links to the landmark that heightened the importance of Tate Modern in terms of its national context

Fig52. View from the west with the ramp leading insid; new extension of the museum built in 2016 by Herzog & de Meuron

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3.2.4

A COMPARATIVE OUTLOOK

PROJECT

SESC POMPEIA

RIJKSMUSEUM

TATE MODERN

location

Sao Paolo, Brazil

Amsterdam, Netherlands

London, United Kingdom

existing function

cultural centre

museum

museum

original function

factory

museum

factory

environment

complex

building

building

INTERVENTION: SPATIAL SCALE renovation of existing and new addition in the complex

inclusive in the built form

inclusive in the built form

interiors in exsiting

central passage and entrance to the museum

turbine hall

additive: adds to the built form for the institution

subtractive: subtracts from the built form for the city

multifunctional: allows for both city scale and institutional scale of activities

manifestation

designing interiors by adding furniture

opening the central courtyard as a passage to allow bicycle traffic

open accessibility of the ground floor and turbine hall

universal accessibility

through entrance

no boundaries, fully accessible

partial, large lockable entrance

strategy

methodology

INTERVENTION: FUNCTIONAL SCALE universal accessibility

partially times specific

passage: completely accessible, museum: time specific

time specific

gehl's type of activity

social, optional

necessary, optional

optional

function for public realm

health care, sport activities, cultural activities

bicycle passage connecting south Amsterdam to city centre

large multipurpose space

Note: The table takes a comprehensive look at all the three projects and lists the important factors related to the intervention on spatial and functional scale.

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3.3

AHMEDABAD: CULTURAL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

The prominence of shopping malls and complexes dominating the public realm highlights the attitude of consumerism and commerce in Indian context. This governed the cultural institutions to be perceived as educational rather than public. This leads to nuances of class-division, economic divisions and loss of intellectual engagement in public realm.

Such kind of spaces doesn’t promote engagement of people with one another instead it fosters a dialogue between the product and the user.

The consumerist attitude has since long embedded itself deeply into the everyday life of people. One of the most relevant contexts in this scenario can be seen in the city of Ahmedabad.

Ahmedabad, known as the Manchester of the East during the Colonial time, is known for its patronage of rich textile industry and the mill owners. It became one of the core centres of urban development along with Chandigarh after the independence in 1947. It was the vision of the educated elite mill owner families that brought the city into light to become an architecturally cultural centre of heritage, commerce and industry in the future. Contrary to its rich architectural heritage the city faces a lack of such public realm which diffuses the divide between its various classes of people. There are public spaces along with cultural institutions in Ahmedabad which functions successfully but it still fails to unify the city at a point in a one public realm. The rapid unorganized urbanisation today is shifting away the people from the spaces belonging to public realm to the private ones. The recent redevelopment of the river front has certainly physically added public spaces by use of robust and lasting life of concrete, green spaces on parts of the bank, a stretch of cycling path and pedestrian walkway on both banks, roads connecting to important city infrastructure such as the international airport, yet it lacks to address the complete freedom for a user. However, the modernist architectural patronage stemming from the merchant families who envisioned the city as a cultural centre had commissioned some prominent architects, Indian and international, to design city’s most reputed institutions till date. A few of them became iconic buildings in the cityscape which include works of early modernist like Achyut Kanvinde followed by Anant Raje, Balkrishna Doshi, Charles Correa, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. The cultural public institution includes the city museum and other museums related to important personality, historical relics and textile, theatre halls, performing arts academy and art gallery.

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Fig53. Tagore Hall, designed by B.V.Doshi and Mahendra Raj, Ahmedabad, India, 1966

3.3.1

THE CASE OF PREMABHAI HALL

LOCATION: The case in discussion is that of Premabhaii Hall, an auditorium designed by Balkrishna Doshi in 1972. It is located on the east side of Ahmedabad, also known as Old City, which was the site of the city’s first settlement in 1400s. The location of the building makes it a unique case to study about. Sitting as the threshold to the 600 years old walled city of Ahmedabad on the east of the river, this modernist building stands apart amidst a setting of archaic past constituting of the old Bhadra Fort and Bhadra Square, a historical gate named Teen Darwaza, 15th Century mosques in close vicinity and the recent past of an adjacent building, Bank of India designed by Kanvinde inspired by the Bauhaus.

The most thriving factor of the building perhaps lies in the highly densely populated Bhadra square full of street vendors, pedestrians and vehicular traffic.

Built in the 70s this hall was constructed as a replacement to the original structure of 1930 (Refer 3.3.). Doshi known for his modernist approach, designed the building in monolithic concrete character. Sitting as a sphinx one may say, it overlooks the historic site of Bhadra Plaza and is adjacent to Bhadra Fort. This juxtaposition of the buildings creates a unique dialog in itself. The auditorium worked only for first five years after which it was shut down due to insufficient service qualities. Since then the auditorium has not been in use and has been lying as a gigantic concrete block for over 30 years. It faced the threat of demolition few years ago by the municipality, but was protected by the redevelopment of Bhadra Plaza in 2014.

Fig54. Bhadra Square as seen from the opening of Premabhai Hall Fig55. View of the building as seen from the Bhadra Fort; the Bhadra square is occupied by daily vendors

SITE AND USERS: Bhadra Plaza as of today is one of the most densely populated places in Ahmedabad. The square is filled up with vehicular traffic, pedestrians, shoppers and vendors selling a range of variety of things. These are daily vendors who set up their small kiosks or units for the day. By midday the square becomes heavily crowded which leads to slower vehicular traffic around. Parallely the owner of the building were seeking to sell the building. Taking into consideration and finding an opportunity to articulate the square with its population and traffic, the architect stepped in and proposed a redevelopment plan for the whole plaza.

In its redevelopment plan, majority of the vehicular circulation and 41

means of controlling the traffic was reconfigured. There were metal gates constructed on the two linking roads that now allowed the plaza to be completely closed when intended. This action also protected the building from being demolished.

Over the time, the stillness of the building gave birth to interesting user-building relationship on the lower faces of the wall. The vendors adapted to the building boundaries by using it to support their set-up units. Many used the foot of the building for shade and avoid the heat.

To respond to the hot climate of the region, the vendors uses umbrellas and plastic sheets to create a cover overhead for their day. This adds to the density of the space.

Its interesting to note that the involvement of the building is evident in people’s everyday life. It is intimate. Meanwhile on the other hand, the building holds little meaning when considering public realm. Hence it becomes an interesting case to explore and ‘give’ the building for the city.

MATERIALITY & SPATIAL QUALITY: With the naturally dark volume of the auditorium, the peripheral spaces of Premabhai Hall holds a dynamism of tectonics and light. The architect has composed numerous sets of experiences of light well beginning from the foyer. The monotony of the material while holding the space together is broken by the variety of openings that enhances the texture of the concrete and creating interesting light experiences.

The hall sits like a Sphinx in the square, dominating and conservative.

The exterior emanates the solidity of the form, the interiors breaks the solidity and conservativeness into a play of planes and lines.

The foyer begins with a platform overlooking the square, giving one a feeling of citadel. This linear volume breaks into a parallel closed foyer through wide pivoted doors. One is immediately beheld of the narrowness broken by skylights of the linear volume. This space reveals the skeleton of the auditorium while presenting the user with the glimpse of the lower remnant of the auditorium seating. This volume connects to the staircases on the peripheral dividing the flow of the users leading to the doors of the main hall space. The hall welcomes one with its contrasting red interior lit up with artificial light and thus begins with the show.

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Fig56. Foyer, gallery space looking over the Bhadra Plaza Fig57. The doors of the building used by daily vendors to hang and display their products

VIEWS OF INTERIOR The set of images shows spaces the following spaces of the building:the foyer, the entrance volume, the stairwell, the balcony

43

VIEWS OF INTERIOR The set of images shows spaces the following spaces of the building:the auditorium, the details of doors, opening and ticket window.

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3.3.2

Fig58. A sectional sketch of Pol Houses of Ahmedabad, where the configuration of the houses close together creates various degrees of interaction

CONCEPTULIZATION AND PROPOSAL

The building’s apparent modernity didn’t quite resonate with the local people. Still relieving themselves from the Colonial life, the brutalist refacing of the original building completely disconnected people from itself. Its short-term life did not allow enough time for the people to associate with it though today its omnipresence can be sensed when one walks past through it midday amidst the sea of vendors.

Adaptation is an inherent nature of being human. The most intimate adaptation of the building can be seen on its lower faces with people taking its support for their daily activities. The disconnect only remains when talked about it in an urban context, but if one takes away the urbanity of the building, it has rather proven more functional in years because people adapted to it. The stillness, the permanence of the building created a relationship with its daily vendors.

The traces of capitalism go long back when it comes to Ahmedabad.

The divide between economic strata is extremely apparent in public realm. The west side of the Ahmedabad has been in constant developments, while the east still remains rooted within its historic context, the kind of urban spaces coming up on the west today only target certain economic strata. Hence it is crucial to have neutral spaces that overlooks and create a public realm which encourages people to connect or explore beyond the societal norms.

With this as an underlying motive, the proposal for Premabhai Hall is to develop a Cultural Exchange Centre where the public realm aims to bridge the divide between such differences by creating open natured spaces. It can be looked upon as a library of resources where one can discover opportunities, information, new sense of freedom without any societal divide. Interestingly, the relationship which the locals share with the periphery of the building balances the constrast of the empty inside and busy outside and yet there’s an urge to move within. (See Fig63) This can be done by opening parts of the building to function for the public sphere. The foremost intervention is to address the vendors and create a balance between the dense exterior versus the void interior. This shall be completely urban in nature. The second part of the intervention focuses on the functioning of the centre within the building. This allows a study of public interiors where urban furniture defines the spaces and the activities. The robust nature of the concrete building gives a certain sense of stronghold and longevity. To create a neutral zone, the use of material for the urban furniture, as seen in the case of SESC Pompeia, it would have characteristics of comfort, flexibility and adaptability.

45

VIEWS OF EXTERIOR The set of images shows the relationship which the locals share with the periphery of the building which balances the constrast of the empty inside and busy outside.

46

SPATIAL INTERVENTION: 1) To open up the middle section of the ground floor in axis of the government book depot in Bhadra Fort: this shall allow the vendors to use the central lower space helping them resolving the issue of shade during daytime and harsh summer. It will shift the density on the inner side, freeing up the front for the entrance of Cultural Exchange Centre.

It will develop a new relationship with the fort.

2) To use the peripheral spaces of the building as public interiors: allowing people to experience the architecture by taking them to spaces surrounding the main hall.

3) To modify the existing steps in the auditorium and create platforms to serve as gathering and sitting spaces: Indian culture involves a lot of activities that occurs on the floor. By extending steps into small platforms will allow more freedom for people to explore and adapt the space as per their use.

FUNCTIONAL INTERVENTION: Bookshop: The current owner of the building, Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, uses some of the spaces today as storage for books. This is the same body who owns the book depot in Bhadra Fort. Hence, one of the additional functions to the building will be a bookshop.

Café: The cantilevered balcony on the main façade is an iconic feature for anyone to locate a surrounding space. When inside, it also provides a panoramic view of the old city. To take that into advantage a café of the balcony is introduced.

Bhadra Market: The shifting of the existing market within the ground floor of the building.

Cultural Exchange Centre: The activities of reading spaces, library, multipurpose spaces is addressed by furniture defining these spaces.

Auditorium: The nature of the auditorium will be used for multipurpose activities such as exhibition, exposition, screening, performances etc.

Fig59. Program and Activities for Cultural Exchange Centre

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VISUALIZATION CULTURAL EXCHANGE CENTRE: EXTERIOR The following diagrams shows the existing site in black and the new internventions in red. The approach towards is the building is to shift the population which sits on the threshold, inside within the space. By opening the axis of the building towards book depot it allows the plaza to be in use.

Fig60. Premabhai Hall Site Plan | 1:400

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC FROM NEHRU BRIDGE

BHADRA TEMPLE BHADRA PLAZA

C.E.C ENTRANCE BOOK DEPOT

PROPOSED PLAZA FOR VENDORS

MARKET

PARKING

TOWARDS ELLISBRIDGE

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CULTURAL EXCHANGE CENTRE: INTERIOR The following diagrams shows the interior interventions which shows minor interventions to arituclate activities. The extension of the stage towards the audience gives a wide berth for multipurpose activities, The false wall on the stage end is created for utilities. The foyer and the entrance are facing the front same as the original function. Moving the vendors from the front to the heart of the building shall provide them with required shade.

The cafe on the balcony overlooks the plaza and the old city. It provides the best vantage point from the building to relish the panoramic view of the Old City of Ahmedabad. Meanwhile the bookshop occupied the residual space in the entrance foyer volume.

CAFE

MULTIPURPOSE HALL

BOOKSHOP

FOYER

MARKET

Fig61. Premabhai Hall Section | 1:400

BOOKSHOP

MULTIPURPOSE HALL

Fig61. Premabhai Hall Foyer Level Plan | 1:400

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3.3.3

TIMELINE: PREMABHAI HALL

Fig62. Premabhai Hall: In 1930s During colonial rule original building

15th Century to 18th Century Bhadra Square

The Bhadra Square outside the main fort was the nucleus of the city of Ahmedabad which has seen various important conflicts, events, gatherings during this time.

1930s

Premabhai Hall Was used as drama hall for theatrical performances. Was also a popular symbolic space during freedom movement for independence.

1947

Independence from British Raj

Late 1960s

Proposal to redevelop and give new architectural identity to Premabhai Hall post independence by Gujarat Vidya Sabha.

Balkrishna Doshi is commissioned for redesigning.

1972

Completion of the new Premabhai Hall as a modernist utopian structure amidst the historical fabric.

Early 1990s

Shut down of the hall due to Fire Regulation issues

2011

Building threatened for demolition and proposed for new parking space instead by AMC

2014

Bhadra Square redesigned by the same architect.

2019

Till date has been dysfunctional until Nov 2019 where AMC passes proposal to develop the hall as city’s new cultural centre 50

PART IV / INFERENCE

51

Public Realm: The Peripheral Spaces as the Point of Contact in Premabhai Hall

“Of the courses of action which are still open to contemporary architecture

- courses which in one way or another have already been entered upon only two seem to offer the possibility of a significant outcome. While the first of these is totally coherent with the prevailing modes of production and consumption, the second establishes itself as a measured opposition to both.

The former, following Mies van der Rohe’s ideal of beinahe nichts or ‘almost nothing’, seeks to reduce the building task to the status of industrial design on an enormous scale. Since its concern is with optimizing production, it has little or no interest in the city. It projects a well-serviced, well-packaged, non-rhetorical functionalism whose glazed ‘invisibility’ reduces form to silence.

The latter, on the other hand, is patently ‘visible’ and often takes the form of a masonry enclosure that establishes that establishes within its limited ‘monastic’ domain a reasonably open but nonetheless concrete set of relationships linking man to man and man to nature. The fact that this ‘enclave’ is often introverted and relatively indifferent to the physical and temporal continuum in which it is situated characterizes the general thrust of this approach as an attempt to escape, however partially, from the conditioning perspectives of the Enlightenment. The sole hope for a significant discourse in the immediate future lies, in my view, in a creative contact between these two extreme points of view. (Frampton,” -Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History While Frampton’s points of view, here intangibly, describes the courses of action in the contemporary architecture today – one can say that, in contemporary present – in the most tangible manner- the creative contact towards a modern building lies in the strategies of its adaptive reuse, the notion of reinventing in architecture.

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Fig63. Concept

In the practice of conservation, preservation, and now adaptive reuse, one can immediately associate words such as revival, restoration, resurrection, resurgence, renaissance to the buildings of archaic past, which can solely be referred to from the recorded history. While the buildings of the recent past strongly demonstrate its conceptual nature of functionality devoid of visual aesthetics, one can approach it with the idea of reinvigorating, revitalizing, stimulating, or replenishing it. The buildings of the Modern Movement, may not need to be completely preserved, but rather it can be reshaped into current needs. The strongest of features that evolved in the International Style – materiality, structural techniques, free plan, homogeneous forms – is one of the key aspects one can take into their advantage when provided an opportunity for its reuse. These features provide a strong possibility of adaptability which one can explore.

To think of the reformation of public realm in today’s state of world today, it certainly demands more thought compared to the time of recent past.

People have adapted to the pattern of constant change. Rapid innovations in every field, the shift towards virtual realm and the intervention of digitalization in everyday life has affected the nature of social activities today. The change in the public realm is dependent on the lifestyle and pattern of the people. Hence, when social activity just included sitting out on the porch interacting with the neighbours after dinner or in chowks or squares for larger gathering, today it has been dissected, composed and manifested into various within the urban fabric.

To manifest the idea of reinvigoration in architecture, one has to address the existing fabric. The sustainability of prolonging the life of a built form can be habituated by practicing the method of reuse. Regenerating the cultural public institutions in an urban scape can bring back the idea of interaction which is lost in the virtual realm today. The function of the institutions can innately partake the responsibility of reconnecting oneself and community back together. The meaning of heritage can be celebrated within the setting of the institution. It can become the environment where interaction is the way of the learning.

As claimed by Frampton in his book, Modern Architecture A Critical History, one can see an innate inwardness and individuality in the buildings of the Modern Movement. Today what remains is the strong sense of the individual presence of these buildings, disconnected from its surrounding urban fabric, especially in the case of Ahmedabad city. The response to save the legacy of our recent past is not to protect but rather to naturally adapt. The disconnect seen between the people and the acceptance of these bold structures can be diluted by reinventing them more for the public realm. To disconnect from its innate functionality for a new function, as paradoxical it may seem can become the most effective way to bridge the gap towards the public realm.

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LISTING OF MODERN HERITAGE IN INDIA MODERN HERITAGE is a research, listing and documentation initiative by Matter, a content initiative, publishing platform and firm based from Goa, India (Matter).

1930 | St. Martin’s Garrison Church, New Delhi | Arthur G. Shoosmith 1934 | Manik Bagh Palace, Indore | Eckart Muthesius 1937 | Gold Finch Apartment, Bombay | G. B. Mhatre 1938 | Lighthouse Cinema, Calcutta | Dudok 1938 | Sheth Mangaldas Town Hall, Ahmedabad | Gregson, Batley & King 1938 | St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Delhi | Walter S. George 1939 | Shodhan House, Ahmedabad | Atmaram Gajjar 1942 | Central College of Women, Nagpur | Otto Koenigsberger 1944 | Sri Jaya Chamarajendra Victory Hall, Bangalore | Otto Koenigsberger 1947 | Dining Hall, Institute of Science, Bangalore | Otto Koenigsberger 1948 | Golconde House, Pondicherry | Antonin Raymond & George Nakashima 1949 | Gandhi Ghat, Bankipore | Habib Rahman 1950 | Siliguri Railway Station, Siliguri | Nariman Bejonji Shroff 1950 | Utkal University Library, Bhubaneswar | Benjamin Polk & Binoy Chatterjee 1952 | Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay | G. M. Bhuta and Associates 1952 | TB Association Building, New Delhi | Walter George 1953 | Government Housing, Chandigarh | Pierre Jeanneret 1953 | Punjab Engineering College, Punjab | J K Chowdhury 1954 | ATIRA, Ahmedabad | Achyut Kanvinde 1954 | Canteen for Mill Workers, Ahmedabad | Mody and Colgan 1954 | CPWD Central Govt. Official Quarters, Bhubaneswar | CPWD 1954 | Home Science Block, WCC, Madras | Bennett Pithavadian 1954 | Hutheesing-Shodhan Villa, Ahmedabad | Le Corbusier 1954 | Orissa State Secretariat, Bhubaneswar | Julius Vaz 1954 | Petroleum House, Bombay | Chauncey W. Riley 1955 | CEERI, Pilani | Achyut Kanvinde 1955 | Dak Tar Bhavan, New Delhi | Habib Rahman 1955 | Sarabhai Villa, Ahmedabad | Le Corbusier 1956 | Secondary School, Chandigarh | Jane Drew 1956 | High Court, Chandigarh | Le Corbusier 1956 | Kirorimal College, Delhi | C. S. H. Jhabvala 1956 | Rajghat, New Delhi | Vanu G. Bhuta 1956 | Secretariat, Chandigarh | Le Corbusier 1956 | Textile Mill Owners’ Association, Ahmedabad | Le Corbusier 1957 | Causticization Plant, Rourkela | Benjamin Polk & Binoy Chatterjee 1957 | National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow | Kanvinde & Rai 1957 | Sanskar Kendra, Ahmedabad | Le Corbusier 1958 | Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi | Durga Bajpai & Piloo Mody, PG Patki Architects 54

1959 | Azad Bhavan, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1959 | Maulana Azad Memorial, Delhi | Habib Rahman 1960 | Higher Secondary School, Chandigarh | Jeet Lal Malhotra 1960 | House for Self, Baroda | Suryakant Patel 1960 | Legislative Assembly, Chandigarh | Le Corbusier 1960 | New Secretariat, Calcutta | Habib Rahman 1960 | Twin Houses, Bhavnagar | Charles Correa 1961 | Gandhi Bhawan, Chandigarh | Pierre Jeanneret 1961 | Hindustan Lever Pavillion, New Delhi | Charles Correa Associates 1961 | Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi | J. K. Chowdhury 1961 | National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad | Gautam & Gira Sarabhai 1961 | Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi | Habib Rahman 1961 | Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh | Aditya Prakash 1961 | Tribal Girls Boarding School, Udwada | Pravina Mehta 1962 | India International Centre, New Delhi | Joseph A. Stein 1962 | Indian Overseas Bank, Madras | Bennett Pithavadian 1962 | Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1962 | Uma Patel’s Kihim House, Kihim | Pravina Mehta 1963 | Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad | Charles Correa 1963 | Islam Gymkhana, Bombay | I. M. Kadri Architects 1963 | Jeevan Sadhna School, Baroda | A. J. Talati 1963 | Kothari Building, Madras | S. L. Chitale 1963 | YMCA Staff Quarters, New Delhi | The Design Group 1963 | Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi | Joseph Allen Stein 1964 | Architect’s Studio, Baroda | Suryakant Patel 1964 | Gurudwara Guru Singh Sabha, Chandigarh | Shivdatt Sharma 1964 | Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Centre, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1965 | External Affairs Hostel, New Delhi | Habib Rahman 1965 | Indraprastha Bhavan, New Delhi | Habib Rahman 1965 | Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad | Achyut Kanvinde 1965 | St Xavier’s School, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1966 | National Institute of Oceanography, Goa | Achyut Kanvinde 1966 | Administrative Building, HMT factory, Hyderabad | Chandavarkar &Thacker 1966 | Central Scientific Instruments Organization, Chandigarh | Shivdatt Sharma 1966 | Gandhi Memorial Hall, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1966 | Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur | Kanvinde & Rai 1966 | PG Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh | Jeet Lal Malhotra 1967 | Arts College Hostel, Chandigarh | Shivdatt Sharma 1967 | Central Bank of India, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa

Consultants 1967 | Shivsagar Estate, Bombay | I .M. Kadri Architects 1968 | Apsara Theater, Bombay | Yahya Merchant 1968 | CEPT, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1968 | Ford Foundation Office, New Delhi | Joseph A. Stein 1968 | Jivan Manek apartment Tower, Bombay | I. M. Kadri Architects 1968 | Rama Bakhle Bungalow, Pune | Pravina Mehta & Hema Sankalia 1968 | Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi | Shiv Nath Prasad 1969 | Akbar Hotel, New Delhi | Shiv Nath Prasad 1969 | Chanakya Cinema, New Delhi | P. N. Mathur, Rajinder Singh & Satish Davar 1969 | French Embassy Staff Quarters, New Delhi | Raj Rewal Associates 1969 | Gujarat State Guesthouse, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1969 | House for Mrs and Mr H. S. Malik, New Delhi | Ram Sharma 1969 | Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi | Mansinh M. Rana 1969 | National Centre for Performing Arts, Bombay | Phillip Johnson & Patel Batliwala 1969 | SMIORE Housing, Vyasanakere | Architects’ Combine 1970 | Express Towers, Bombay | Joseph A. Stein 1970 | Hindon River Mills Factory, Ghaziabad | Morad Chowdhury 1970 | India Pavilion, Osaka | Sachdev and Eggleston 1970 | YMCA Institute of Engineering, Faridabad | The Design Group 1971 | Electronics Corporation of India Township, Hyderabad | Vastu Shilpa Associates 1971 | Hall of Nations, New Delhi | Raj Rewal Associates 1971 | Housing at Aspiration, Auroville | Roger Anger 1971 | Inter-State Bus Terminus, New Delhi | Rajinder Kumar 1971 | Lecture Theatres, Jodhpur | Uttam C. Jain 1971 | Loyola Chapel, Thiruvananthapuram | Lauri Baker 1971 | NHL Medical College, Ahmedabad | Suryakant Patel 1972 | Nehru Pavilion, New Delhi | Raj Rewal Associates 1972 | Premabhai Hall, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1972 | Hotel Broadway, Srinagar | Achyut Kanvinde 1972 | National Dairy Development Board Campus, Anand | Achyut Kanvinde 1973 | Dudhsagar Dairy Farm, Mehsana | Achyut Kanvinde 1973 | Hostel Tower, National Dairy Development Board, Anand | Achyut Kanvinde & Morad Chowdhury 1973 | Patel Bhavan, New Delhi | Habib Rahman 1973 | St. John’s Cathedral, Tiruvalla | Laurie Baker 1973 | St. Thomas’ Church, New Delhi | Oscar Pereira 1973 | St. Xavier’s Primary School, Ahmedabad | Hasmukh C. Patel 1973 | University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore | Achyut Kanvinde 1974 | Air India, Bombay | John Burgee 1974 | Ashoka Estate, New Delhi | Achyut P. Kanvinde 1974 | CEAT Mahal, Bombay | I. M. Kadri 1974 | Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum | Laurie Baker

1974 | House for Mr S. W. Desai, Baroda | Shirgaonkar and Ekbote 1974 | Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad | Louis I. Kahn 1974 | Sanskrit School, Auroville | Roger Anger 1974 | Shelters at Auromodel, Auroville | Roger Anger 1975 | Auditorium at Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati | S. L. Chitale 1975 | Reserve Bank of India, Ahmedabad | Hasmukh C. Patel 1976 | Chakravarty House, New Delhi | Romi Khosla 1976 | Hostels at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi | C. P. Kukreja 1976 | Housing at Malviya Nagar, New Delhi | Kuldip Singh 1976 | Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi | Anant Raje 1976 | LIC Housing, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Associates 1976 | Low-cost housing, Noida | Anil Laul 1976 | State Trading Corporation, New Delhi | Raj Rewal 1976 | Visvesvarya Centre, Bangalore | Charles Correa 1976 | Raj Mandir Cinema, Jaipur | W.M. Namjoshi 1977 | Bandodkar Memorial, Goa | Uttam C. Jain 1977 | Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar | J. L. Chowdhury 1977 | Hotel Mughal Sheraton, Agra | The Design Group 1977 | Salvacao Church, Bombay | Charles Correa Associates 1978 | Press Enclave Co-operative Group Housing, New Delhi | M. N. Ashish Ganju 1978 | Rural Mental Health Institute, Sakalvara | Architects’ Combine 1978 | TARA Group Housing, New Delhi | Charles Correa Associates 1978 | Vikram Sarabhai Hall, Ahmedabad | S. D. Sharma 1978 | SOS Village, Bawana, Haryana | Christopher Charles Benninger 1979 | Chinmaya Mission Centre, Ahmedabad | Mahendra Kothari 1979 | Mother and Child Care Centre, Bagnan | Ashish M. N. Ganju 1979 | Raman Research Institute library, Bangalore | P. K. Venkataramanan & P. K. Chandrasekaran 1980 | Bombay Stock Exchange (Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers), Bombay | Chandrakant Patel 1980 | Indian Coffee House, Trivandrum | Laurie Baker 1980 | Yamuna Apartments, New Delhi | The Design Group 1980 | Low-Cost Housing, Rajkot | Kulbhushan and Minakshi Jain 1980 | National Cooperative Development Corp., New Delhi | Kuldip Singh 1980 | Sangath, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1981 | Tata Theatre, NCPA, Bombay | Philip Johnson 1982 | Bharatpuri Water Tank, Ujjain | Hema Sankalia 1982 | Dena Bank, Zonal Office, Ahmedabad | Hasmukh C. Patel 1982 | Hotel Cidade de Goa, Panaji | Charles Correa Associates 1982 | House for Mr Gowarikar, Trivandrum | Laurie Baker 1982 | Management Development Centre, Ahmedabad | Anant Raje & B. V. Doshi 1982 | NDMC Indoor Swimming Pool, Asiad ’82, New Delhi | Satish Grover 55

1982 | Nehru Centre, Bombay | I. M. Kadri 1982 | Olympic Village, New Delhi | Raj Rewal 1982 | St Michael’s Church & Primary School, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1983 | Central Library, Jodhpur | Uttam C. Jain 1983 | Civic Centre, New Delhi | Kuldip Singh 1983 | House for Self, Ahmedabad | Leo Pereira 1983 | Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1983 | Kanchanjunga Apartments, Bombay | Charles Correa & Pravina Mehta 1983 | National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi | Raj Rewal 1983 | School for Mobile Creches, New Delhi | Vasant and Revathi Kamath 1983 | Kala Academy, Panaji | Charles Correa 1983 | Staff housing, Sri Dasmesh Academy, Anandpur | Satnam and Namita Singh 1983 | Vikas Sadan, New Delhi | Santosh Auluck 1983 | National Dairy Development Board Office, New Delhi | Achyut Kanvinde 1984 | ATIRA Staff housing, Ahmedabad | Anant Raje 1984 | Bombay Cloth Market, Surat | Suryakant Patel 1984 | Divisional Office, LIC, Agra | J. H. Ghadiali 1984 | Embassy of Belgium, New Delhi | Satish Gujral and Mohit Gujral 1984 | Gandhi Labour Institute, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1984 | Guest rooms, Rajpath Club, Ahmedabad | Kamal Mangaldas 1984 | Hostel for Women, Ujjain | Hema Sankalia and Vilas Joshi 1984 | Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi | J. K. Chowdhury 1984 | Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi | Mansinh M. Rana 1984 | Kalakshetra Theatre, Madras | D. Appukuttan Nair 1984 | Kashmir Conference Complex, Srinagar | Joseph A. Stein 1984 | Mud-brick Tourist Village, Mandawa | Revathi and Vasant Kamath 1984 | R&D Building, Semi-Conductor Complex, Chandigarh | Romi Khosla 1984 | Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad | Neelkanth Chhaya 1984 | Institute of Rural Management, Anand | Achyut Kanvinde 1985 | Artist’s Studio, Ahmedabad | Sudhir Shah 1985 | Escorts Factories, Faridabad | J. A. Stein, Doshi and Bhalla 1985 | Modern School, Vasanth Vihar, Delhi | Sachdev and Eggleston 1985 | Nehru Science Centre, Bombay | Achyut Kanvinde 1985 | Open Hand Monument, Chandigarh | Le Corbusier 1985 | Patha Bhavana Girls Hostel, Shantiniketan | Dulal Mukherjee 1985 | University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur | Uttam C. Jain 1985 | Lepers Hospital, Lasur, Maharashtra | Jan Olav Jensen, Per Christian Brynildsen 1985 | National Institute of Bank Management, Pune | Achyut Kanvinde 1986 | Baha’i House of Worship, New Delhi | Fariborz Sahba 1986 | Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New 56

Delhi | Ralph Lerner 1986 | Kalidasa Academy, Ujjain | Hema Sankalia 1986 | Life Insurance Corporation, New Delhi | Charles Correa Associates 1986 | Olympic Swimming Pool and Stadium, TATA, Bombay | Brinda Somaya 1987 | Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad | Bimal Patel 1987 | Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Bombay | Uttam C. Jain 1988 | Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal | Anant Raje 1989 | SCOPE Building, New Delhi | Raj Rewal Associates 1989 | Abu Abraham’s House, Trivandrum | Laurie Baker 1989 | Aranya Community Housing, Indore | Vastu-Shilpa Foundation 1990 | Jain House, Lonavala | Nari Gandhi 1990 | Jal Vayu Vihar, Bangalore | Shilpa Sindoor Architects 1990 | Mati-Ghar, New Delhi | Sanjay Prakash 1990 | National Crafts Museum, New Delhi | Charles Correa Associates 1990 | NRK House, Bombay | Brinda Somaya 1990 | United Breweries Corporate Headquarters, Bangalore | Romi Khosla Design Studio 1991 | Malik House, Lonavala | Nari Gandhi 1992 | Amba Deep Tower, New Delhi | C. P. Kukreja Associates 1992 | IIM Bangalore | Vastu Shilpa Consultants 1992 | Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur | Charles Correa Associates 1992 | Nalin Tomar House, Delhi | Kamath Design 1992 | Udavi School, Auroville | Studio Naqshbandi 1993 | India Habitat Centre, New Delhi | Joseph A. Stein 1993 | Nilaya Hermitage, Goa | Mozaic 1993 | Sanpada Housing, Navi Mumbai | Hema Sankalia and Subodh Dhairyawan 1995 | Amdivad ni Gufa, Ahmedabad | Vastu Shilpa Consultants

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS NOTE: The figures absent from the list are created by the author, whereas the direct sources of the images have been credited by their name.

COVER PAGE_ Sketch of Premabhai Hall by Balkrishna Doshi and Modification by Shailja Patel Fig4_WestFirstYear, https://www.flickr.com/photos/references/3216775316 Fig5_Former Days, http://www.formerdays.com/2012/03/crystal-palace.html Fig7_Dezeen, https://www.dezeen.com/2017/07/27/elizabeth-diller-interview-riba-architects-learn-lessonshigh-line-manage-gentrification/ Fig8 1. Archigraphie, https://www.archigraphie.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mies_Van_Der_Rohe_Brick_ Country_House.jpg 2. Artstation, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bm4en6 3. Plain Magazine, https://plainmagazine.com/ornament-crime-phaidon-modernist-architecture/ 4. picuki.com/location/louis-kahn-plaza-iim-ahmedabad/1017010447 5. Divisare, https://divisare.com/projects/396431-louis-kahn-cemal-emden-national-parliament-of-bangladesh 6. Atlas of Places, https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/maison-de-verre/ 7. The City as a Project - http://thecityasaproject.org/2014/03/the-dom-ino-effect/ 8. ArchDaily, https://www.archdaily.com/104713/ad-classics-lovell-house-richard-neutra?ad_medium=gallery 9. Shopify, https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1712/6707/products/mies_1500x.jpg?v=1554114574 Fig9,10_David Chipperfield Architects, https://davidchipperfield.com/project/ neue-nationalgalerie-refurbishment Fig11_Atlast of Places, https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/neue-nationalgalerie/ Fig12_14 World Architecture https://worldarchitecture.org/article-links/eezhn/remembering-le-corbusier-hisindian-connection-on-his-132nd-birth-anniversary.html Fig13_Dezeen https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/07/le-corbusier-capitol-complex-unesco-world-heritagelisting-chandigarh-india-benjamin-hosking/ Fig15_Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ATMA_House_186.jpg Fig16_Hidden Architecture, https://hiddenarchitecture.net/jawahar-kala-kendra/ Fig17,18_The Balcao, https://thebalcao.com/why-the-kala-academy-is-so-important/ Fig21_Paper Planes, https://www.joinpaperplanes.com/design-and-living/four-days-raw-collaborative-2019/ Fig22_ArchDaily, https://www.archdaily.com/923851/alembic-industrial-heritage-and-re-development-karangrover-and-associates Fig24,25_Atlas of Places, https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/centre-pompidou/ Fig26_Itinari, https://www.itinari.com/museums-in-paris-georges-pompidou-centre-kwq2 Fig27_Rijksmuseum, https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/visitor-information/inside-the-rijksmuseum/the-passage Fig28_Bicycle Dutch, https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/ the-bicycle-passage-of-the-amsterdam-rijksmuseum/ Fig30_Google Earth Images Fig32.1_Markus Lanz, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sescsp/15764208571/in/photostream/ Fig32.2_Nelson Kon, http://www.nelsonkon.com.br/sesc-24-de-maio/ Fig32.3_ArchDaily, https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/01-153205/ classicos-da-arquitetura-sesc-pompeia-slash-lina-bo-bardi?ad_medium=gallery Fig32.4_Markus Lanz, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sescsp/15764208571/in/photostream/ Fig33.1,33.2_Markus Lanz, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sescsp/15764208571/in/photostream/ Fig34.1,34.2_Nelson Kon, http://www.nelsonkon.com.br/sesc-24-de-maio/ Fig35_Cruz y Ortiz, https://www.cruzyortiz.com/2015-another-year-of-success-for-the-rijksmuseum/ Fig36_ArchDaily, https://www.archdaily.com/357590/rijksmuseum-cruz-y-ortiz-arquitectos Fig37_Bing Maps Fig38_Cruz y Ortiz Report on Rijksmuseum, https://www.archdaily.com/357590/ rijksmuseum-cruz-y-ortiz-arquitectos Fig40_Riba Journal https://www.ribaj.com/products/extreme-spec-underwater Fig41_ArchDaily, https://www.archdaily.com/357590/rijksmuseum-cruz-y-ortiz-arquitectos Fig42,43_Cruz y Ortiz, https://www.cruzyortiz.com/2015-another-year-of-success-for-the-rijksmuseum/ Fig44_Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tate-galleries 57

Fig45_Google Earth Fig46_The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/15/ herzog-de-meuron-interview-tate-modern-switch-house-extension Fig47_Dezeen, https://www.dezeen.com/2017/10/12/superflex-tate-modern-turrbine-hall-one-two-threeswing-design-installations/ Fig48_Secret London, https://secretldn.com/tate-modern-uk-top-attraction/ Fig49_Weather Project, Richard Holt, https://www.archdaily.com/429700/ ad-classics-the-tate-modern-herzog-and-de-meuron?ad_medium=gallery Fig50_The National, https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/ coronavirus-tate-v-a-museum-and-british-museum-close-1.993733 Fig52_Viator, https://www.viator.com/tours/London/The-Tate-Modern-Private-Guided-Museum-Tour/ d737-40046P21 Fig53_Divisare, https://divisare.com/projects/381275-balkrishna-doshi-vsf-edmund-sumner-tagore-memorialhall SECTION 3.3.1: The images of the site Premabhai Hall are collectively retreived from their direct sources: Asrith, Vishnu; Choudhary, Vishnu; Jash, Mauli; Patel, Caitanya; Patel, Shaurya; Shah, Vruti.

Fig62_(Williamson, 2016)

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