Boxes of Miracles: Unpacking Ahmedabad's Love Affair With Brutalist Architecture

In the post-war period of the 1950s and 60s, as reconstruction efforts were underway in most of Europe and many of the post-colonial nation-states that emerged in the wake of World War II, a new architectural style — with an emphasis on exposed concrete and construction materials — emerged in London, UK, before spreading to the rest of Europe, and eventually, the world. Faced with material scarcity and limited resources of the post-war years, architects — particularly younger architects — of the time felt that modernism represented little more than an aesthetic language and sought to create structures rooted in functionality and monumental expression. They rejected ornamental designs and believed that architectural design should prioritise simplicity, functionality, and social purpose instead.

In 1955, British architecture critic Reyner Banham wrote an essay in the Architectural Review in which he attempted to classify and define this emerging style. He called it 'The New Brutalism'. During the 1950s, British architects like Alison and Peter Smithson also began to use the term to describe their approach to modernism, which rejected nostalgia for earlier architectural styles and tendencies to embellish structures. Over time, the term Brutalism became associated with the movement as a whole.

In India, the 50s and 60s were decades that would come to define the newly independent nation. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, had a modernist vision for the country, and one of the ways he attempted to realise his vision was by commissioning large-scale construction projects like industrial plants, dams, institutions, and cities — structures he famously termed the ‘temples of modern India’. Nehru’s backing for design and architecture had its roots in his belief in the power of national monuments to catalyse social change and expedite the process of decolonisation, and it inspired a new wave of architects and architectural projects in the country.

In 1950, the Indian Government commissioned the French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret — better known as Le Corbusier — to design the planned city of Chandigarh. But beyond Chandigarh, Le Corbusier also designed several notable buildings in the industrial city of Ahmedabad. In doing so, between 1951 and 1957, he forever changed the face of the city.

Le Corbusier's modernist designs for the Sanskar Kendra city museum and the Mill Owners’ Association Buildings inspired architects like B.V. Doshi who took Le Corbusier's concept of faceless buildings — which the French architect called 'La Bôite à Miracles', or 'the box of miracles' and designed several buildings in the city in the Brutalist style.

From Le Corbusier's modernist masterpiece and B.V. Doshi's monumental boxes of miracles to contemporary neo-Brutalist residences, here are five examples of Ahmedabad's Brutalist architecture:

Le Corbusier was commissioned by the Mill Owners’ Association to design the organization’s headquarters in Ahmedabad — a centre of India’s textile trade throughout history. The building is a physical manifesto representing Le Corbusier’s proposal for a modern Indian architecture in the post-colonial period. Constructed in 1954, the Mill Owners’ Association Building is considered the first of four completed commissions in Ahmedabad.

Learn more about the Mill Owners' Association here.

In the 1950s, Le Corbusier also designed a large cultural complex in Ahmedabad called the Cultural Centre of Ahmedabad. The complex was originally meant to house a museum, a performing arts theatre, and an open air pavilion, but only the museum — now known as the Sanskar Kendra — was built. In the 1960s, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation commissioned Balkrishna Doshi to design a hall dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore at the same site. Doshi completed the final design in 1961, and the Tagore Memorial Hall — one of the finest example of Brutalist architecture in India — was completed in 1971.

Designed and built at a time India was still at a nascent stage of nation-building, the Tagore Memorial Hall is an architectural icon that not only honours one of India's greatest literary minds, but also responds to the local climatic conditions and social context to create a vision for a modern structure which both draws from and contributes to its surroundings.

In 1956, Ahmedabad-born industrialist and philanthropist Kasturbhai Lalbhai commissioned B.V. Doshi to design a museum to house the Jain monk and scholar Munishri Punyavijayji's personal collection of approximately 10,000 manuscripts on religious treatises, ayurveda, tantra, and Hindu philosophy during his travels in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The result of this commission was the Institute of Indology — a cultural centre in Ahmedabad that contains a library designed to house the rare, ancient manuscripts; a research centre; and a museum.

In designing the Institute, Doshi considered the natural light, temperature, and humidity of the region to preserve the artefacts stored inside. The building's two stories, high plinth, and a veranda that runs the entire length of the structure are all components of traditional Indian buildings.

"All the elements one finds in Indian buildings are present [here]. I had studied a Jain upashraya, a home for monks, before I designed it. I had also met several Jain saints in the city to understand the traditional architecture for this building type," Doshi once said about the design of the Institute.

In 1966, Doshi founded and designed The School of Architecture in Ahmedabad. The original structure drew inspiration from Doshi's mentor Le Corbusier's brise-soleil façade for the Mill Owners' Association Building, while the use of brick and concrete paid homage to the exposed brick design of the Villa Sarabhai. An admirer of Le Corbusier's ability to "create a soft light that makes people's faces glow", Doshi included slanted skylights and sliding doors to manipulate light and regulate temperature in his design for the School.

The campus has continued to grow in the decades since then, expanding to include, among other faculties, the School of Planning in 1970; the Visual Arts Centre in 1978; and the School of Interior Design in 1982. It was renamed the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT University) in 2002. Students from the School of Architecture assisted in designing each new addition using similar forms and materials so that the entire campus feels cohesive.

From public architecture in the 50s and 60s to residential projects in recent years, Brutalism remains a strong current within Ahmedabad's architectural traditions. Beton Brut — a French phrase which means raw concrete — is only one example of how the movement continues to influence architectural design in the city.

Created by Ahmedabad-based The Grid Architects, the monolithic, neo-Brutalist house uses concrete as the main construction material — a design choice that also informed the shape and style of the house.

Learn more about the project here.

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

The Enduring Legacy Of Indian Architect B.V. Doshi

A Corbusier Cousin: How Pierre Jeanneret Helped Shape Modern-Day Chandigarh

The Forgotten Heritage & Legacy Of South Kolkata’s Art Deco Neighbourhoods