Plans to demolish part of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad by architect Louis Kahn have been withdrawn following an international outcry.
The management school's board of governors yesterday announced it had abandoned plans to demolish a cluster of brick dormitories that forms part of the monumental campus.
In a letter announcing the decision, the board of governors acknowledged the impact of global protests against the proposed destruction of 14 of the 18 dormitory buildings.
"You have sought to remind us that the dormitories designed by Louis Kahn are a cultural legacy and that these buildings are to be seen as an integral part of the ensemble of buildings that constitute the campus," said the letter.
"We are acutely cognizant of the place that the institute and its architecture occupy in the larger community, and of the responsibility that comes with being custodians of the legacy that Louis Kahn bestowed on us." Demolition plans triggered protests
Protests erupted last month after the school, located in Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, published an expression of interest seeking proposals to replace the crumbling 1970s dorms with new buildings.
Top image: IIM Ahmedabad, designed by Louis Kahn. Above: Work on the buildings began in 1962. Photo is by Perspectives, the photography club of IIMA, on Wikimedia Commons
A petition to save the buildings organised by the Architectural Review has so far garnered over 13,000 signatures.
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