Ahmedabad: Modern Architecture practiced by western architects in India.
Two works in particular in Ahmedabad exhibited a rational and effective aesthetic response to climate and culture - the Millowners Building by Le Corbusier and the Indian Institute of Management by Louis Kahn.
Le Corbusier was at pains to adapt his own method and systems of architecture (open plan, free facade, pilotis, promenade architecturale, etc.) to the challenges of a climate very different from that of Europe. Specifically, his main concern was to provide adequate shade and temperature within the building, and to combine these solutions into his functional/aesthetic framework. This is achieved by sandwiching Le Corbusier's usual free plan (punctuated by columns and architectural objects such as stairs, auditoria, etc.) within a deep layer of horizontal and vertical louvers, a development of his research into brise-soleil screens. These create a transition zone of shade and cool air on either side of the building.
His method of incorporating local environmental conditions established, Le Corbusier went on to incorporate these screens into his aesthetic system, to clarify them as specific elements, establish them in relation to the other extant architectural nouns in his vocabulary: the stairs, the ramp, curved volumes...
The element itself becomes massaged to contextualise itself to different local conditions: breaking up to allow light to penetrate the foyer at the entry ramp; horizontal louvers are located closer together towards the bottom of floor plates, where it's more important to prevent too much light to penetrate to the space inside; at the rear facade, with views of the river and less direct light, verticals are omitted; whereas on the front, with the strongest light, verticals are more closely spaced, and angled to allow views in one direction, and completely block the harshest afternoon sun from the other; planting is incorporated. The element is clearly delineated from the rest of the building with the drainage slots in the floor and ceiling. The extreme care taken in the delineation and classification of elements leads to a remarkable degree of clarity in the design, almost like a diagram, or a machine.
In architect Louis Kahn's Indian Institute of Management, a similar approach can be observed, though perhaps less organisationally influenced by previous constructs. Here, Kahn determined that in addition to intense sunlight, the environmental conditions also included seismic loading, a problem his design demonstrably overcame in 2002, when Gujarat suffered a major earthquake which damaged but did not seriously effect the building.
To accommodate shading requirements, Kahn used a technique he described as "buildings within ruins", where an outer buffer layer of construction provided shade for circulation spaces and inner constructed volumes housing specific functions. He was later to use this to dramatic effect at the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, amongst others.
The requirement for a structure able to withstand seismic loading lead to the adoption of a variety of arched brick reinforcement in walls, generally in combination with pre-stressed concrete lintels. This binary pair, the brick arch in compression and the concrete lintel in tension, is used throughout the building complex, even within solid brick walls to provide extra stability in the event of an earthquake.
This functional justification for the defining detail of the building complex was also chosen by Kahn because of its coincidence with several other strands of his oeuvre; like Le Corbusier, he was concerned with uniting a functional/technical response to the environmental conditions with his own aesthetic and architectural concerns. His use of arches embedded within walls obliquely referred to Kahn's aesthetic preference for ruin-like, Piranesi-esque buildings; with the concrete lintel/brick arch detail, however, he was able to provide the complex with an icon, to unite the institute with a symbol. It's clarity was undoubtedly appealing to Kahn, combining the ancient form of the arch, with all its cultural and historical resonances, with the contemporary pre-stressed concrete design, and its implicit reference to technology and progressivism.
For both architects, then, a two-step approach is evident: first, an identification of local environmental forces or constraints, and the design element that will serve as the solution to these constraints, and second, a codification of the design solution to integrate it with
their previous design components and philosophies. There are a few possible reasons for the similarity in approach: the sheer extremity of the environments may have demanded the adoption of the constraints as a main driver for design decision; a certain amount of freedom from the cultural, historical and technical baggage of western countries (e.g.. the lack of requirement for a hermetically sealed building) may have opened up the architects to explore ideas and forms not normally available to them; both designers were coming from a quite different historic and cultural background, and this western 'rational' approach lead to designs with logical, coherent and related elements, creating a design process which tended to identify and exaggerate particular elements.
Le Corbusier was at pains to adapt his own method and systems of architecture (open plan, free facade, pilotis, promenade architecturale, etc.) to the challenges of a climate very different from that of Europe. Specifically, his main concern was to provide adequate shade and temperature within the building, and to combine these solutions into his functional/aesthetic framework. This is achieved by sandwiching Le Corbusier's usual free plan (punctuated by columns and architectural objects such as stairs, auditoria, etc.) within a deep layer of horizontal and vertical louvers, a development of his research into brise-soleil screens. These create a transition zone of shade and cool air on either side of the building.
His method of incorporating local environmental conditions established, Le Corbusier went on to incorporate these screens into his aesthetic system, to clarify them as specific elements, establish them in relation to the other extant architectural nouns in his vocabulary: the stairs, the ramp, curved volumes...
The element itself becomes massaged to contextualise itself to different local conditions: breaking up to allow light to penetrate the foyer at the entry ramp; horizontal louvers are located closer together towards the bottom of floor plates, where it's more important to prevent too much light to penetrate to the space inside; at the rear facade, with views of the river and less direct light, verticals are omitted; whereas on the front, with the strongest light, verticals are more closely spaced, and angled to allow views in one direction, and completely block the harshest afternoon sun from the other; planting is incorporated. The element is clearly delineated from the rest of the building with the drainage slots in the floor and ceiling. The extreme care taken in the delineation and classification of elements leads to a remarkable degree of clarity in the design, almost like a diagram, or a machine.
In architect Louis Kahn's Indian Institute of Management, a similar approach can be observed, though perhaps less organisationally influenced by previous constructs. Here, Kahn determined that in addition to intense sunlight, the environmental conditions also included seismic loading, a problem his design demonstrably overcame in 2002, when Gujarat suffered a major earthquake which damaged but did not seriously effect the building.
To accommodate shading requirements, Kahn used a technique he described as "buildings within ruins", where an outer buffer layer of construction provided shade for circulation spaces and inner constructed volumes housing specific functions. He was later to use this to dramatic effect at the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, amongst others.
The requirement for a structure able to withstand seismic loading lead to the adoption of a variety of arched brick reinforcement in walls, generally in combination with pre-stressed concrete lintels. This binary pair, the brick arch in compression and the concrete lintel in tension, is used throughout the building complex, even within solid brick walls to provide extra stability in the event of an earthquake.
This functional justification for the defining detail of the building complex was also chosen by Kahn because of its coincidence with several other strands of his oeuvre; like Le Corbusier, he was concerned with uniting a functional/technical response to the environmental conditions with his own aesthetic and architectural concerns. His use of arches embedded within walls obliquely referred to Kahn's aesthetic preference for ruin-like, Piranesi-esque buildings; with the concrete lintel/brick arch detail, however, he was able to provide the complex with an icon, to unite the institute with a symbol. It's clarity was undoubtedly appealing to Kahn, combining the ancient form of the arch, with all its cultural and historical resonances, with the contemporary pre-stressed concrete design, and its implicit reference to technology and progressivism.
For both architects, then, a two-step approach is evident: first, an identification of local environmental forces or constraints, and the design element that will serve as the solution to these constraints, and second, a codification of the design solution to integrate it with
their previous design components and philosophies. There are a few possible reasons for the similarity in approach: the sheer extremity of the environments may have demanded the adoption of the constraints as a main driver for design decision; a certain amount of freedom from the cultural, historical and technical baggage of western countries (e.g.. the lack of requirement for a hermetically sealed building) may have opened up the architects to explore ideas and forms not normally available to them; both designers were coming from a quite different historic and cultural background, and this western 'rational' approach lead to designs with logical, coherent and related elements, creating a design process which tended to identify and exaggerate particular elements.
posted by kvwxyz [at] gmail.com @ 3:10 PM
2 Comments:
that's not very constructive.
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