Dear Dr. Errol D Souza

Ref: Save Louis Kahn Dormitories at IIM, Ahmedabad

I received the surprising news that IIM proposes to demolish the dormitories designed by Louis Kahn in collaboration with B V Doshi, whom, as you may know, received recently the Architectural Pritzker Prize.

In the States, Balkrishna Doshi has been chosen as one of the most important Indian Architects.

The Campus Dormitories testify of a moment of architectural creation which Louis Kahn demonstrated in Ahmedabad, which has been a source of inspiration for the world community of architects as an example of both innovation and integration to the Indian context.

Some buildings are of universal value and belong to the culture of all of us and the Dormitories are one of those. For India specifically, they add to the numerous ones existing and which are preserved as for example, the restoration of the Vikram Sarabhai Library has been appreciated by the UNESCO for its efforts in conservation. It is possible to do the same for the Dormitories.

The Indian Institute of Management should reconsider and abandon the proposal to demolish the Dormitories. The only path possible should be their conservation and restoration and declaring them as Universal Heritage and protected.

It is why I want again express to you my support for the call by the Council of Architecture of India, and also expressed by the numerous calls of the international community, of which I have been informed, to save the dormitories designed by Louis Kahn since the project is of great significance to the history of Architecture across the world, and also in your own country being of great importance to the education of students and even of your citizens.

Jose Oubrerie

French Registered Architect
Professor Emeritus Ohio State University
Former Dean of University of Kentucky College of Architecture
Doctor Honoris Causa Universidad de Valparaiso Chile
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres France

cc: Nandan Balsavar

I like to  give you some of my personal  credentials: apart from my career as an architect and ultimately as a Professor of architecture  in the US, I have been working in Paris for Le Corbusier from 1959 to 1965, and for example have developed  all the drawings and models of his project for the Firminy Church in France. After his death in 1965 the newly created Foundation Le Corbusier  put me in charge of its realization. The church  has  become  an important demonstration of the creativity  of Le Corbusier,  I have also been  working  on the conceptual project for the Museum of Chandigarh which was developed ultimately by  his Office there, and otherwise on different projects which have been of  great importance for the development of architecture, in particular the Le Corbusier Hospital of Venezia. 

This document is embedded in …

Letters from International Community in response to a call by the Council of Architecture (India) In Letters urging the IIM, Ahmedabad to sustain the restoration process to preserve the works of Louis I. Kahn and othersPrimary, Edited by Durganand Balsavar. New Delhi, 2020.