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Full Description
Sanskar Kendra stands as one of Le Corbusier's lesser-known architectural achievements, a cultural center designed for post-independence Ahmedabad that now faces an uncertain future. This book examines Sanskar Kendra both as a physical artifact and as a site of broader cultural debates.
Originally conceived as a Citizens' Cultural Center to serve India's emerging modern society, the building was intentionally designed as an alternative to colonial and European museum models. Today, however, the abandoned structure seems increasingly disconnected from the rapidly changing city growing around it. Through detailed analysis of the project's ambitious beginnings and the debates surrounding its potential demolition, the collection explores themes ranging from concrete construction techniques to questions about who gets included—and excluded—from public cultural spaces. The essays bring together local and international perspectives on pressing contemporary issues: how we care for and maintain our built environments, what it means to create truly participatory public spaces in an age of market-driven development, and how design can serve as a tool for social change. Two of the chapters take a visual approach to these questions. Award-winning architectural photographer Randhir Singh contributes a photo essay that captures the building's current state, while another chapter presents speculative architectural designs that imagine alternative futures for Sanskar Kendra. This book concludes with renowned architect B.V. Doshi's reflections on the architect's responsibility to society.
This book will appeal to scholars, educators, and students working in architectural theory, history, and design education. It's also valuable for readers interested in visual culture, urban studies, museum and curatorial studies, and South Asian studies.
Contents
0. Introduction A Walk through Sanskar Kendra (Sarosh Anklesaria) The Terms of Debate (Lily Chi) Dormant City Museum: A Photo Essay (Randhir Singh) Part One: Situating Sanskar Kendra: Histories and Context 1. Negotiating the Local and the Universal, the Client and the Architect at Sanskar Kendra (Daniel Williamson) 2. Reading the Museum as Infrastructure: From the Mundaneum to Sanskar Kendra (Sarosh Anklesaria) 3. Similarities and Differences of Le Corbusier's Museums at Ahmedabad, Tokyo, and Chandigarh (Maria Cecilia O'Byrne) 4. "Exposing" Concrete: The Constructional Legacies of the City Museum (Gauri Bharat and Mallika Nyshadham) Part Two: Critiques and Redirections 5. Ahmedabad: The Middle-Class Megacity (Mona Mehta) 6. Sanskar Kendra: Re-membering the Cultural Centre (Shubhra Raje and Riyaz Tayyibji) 7. Reflections on the Making of the Bihar Museum and the Conflictorium (Batul Raaj Mehta and Avni Sethi) 8. Sanskar Kendra Today: Is my Modernism Your Millstone? (A Conversation with Mrinalini Rajagopalan) Part Three: Learning from Sanskar Kendra 9. Disarticulating Architecture (Lily Chi) 10. Refractions on Sanskar Kendra (Lily Chi and Sarosh Anklesaria) 11. B.V Doshi on the Responsibilities of the Architect (A Conversation with Students).
