The Halls of Industry and Nehru Pavilion - Landmarks of India's Modern Architecture

An exhibition of photographs, architectural drawings by Raj Rewal and structural drawings by Mahendra Raj opens in the central quadrangle at the India International Centre today at 5pm. Please do join the designers and support the cause to save these very important architectural masterpieces of our modernist heritage. The Hall of Nations is the largest span concrete structure in the world and was conceived and built in 1972 - with limited material resources but no limit in creative ambition. The buildings symbolised the futuristic aspirations of the nation at its 25th year of independence. That they are now proposed to be demolished is a shocking case of cultural destruction of our modernist architectural heritage which has drawn international recognition.

The exhibit is displaying the fantastic structural drawings by Mahendra Raj for the very first time. These show the lay public how intricate a construction like this was and what an achievement it was to literally build this by hand. There is also a section on the Nehru exhibition for which the Nehru pavilion was designed. This exhibition is a design landmark in itself - designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1965. It was assembled at NID and was a key moment in NID's history as well (NID was set up on the basis of Eames's India Report from 1958).