Influencing post-independence

architectural endeavours in India through

continuity of form, type and materials
Mill Owners’ Association Building,
Ahmedabad
Bose Dipon, AUIC, Politecnico di Milano Fall 2020
Matricola : 961878

History of Contemporary Architecture, 051510

Prof. Paolo Scrivano
_________________________________________________________________________________

End of WWII – Independence of India – New era of building projects

In the years following World War II, India occupied a prominent place in the international community.
The National Movement„s successful use of a policy of non-violence to achieve independence gave
the country a moral authority, and independent India„s policy of non-alignment, while seen as a
provocation by the great powers that had emerged from the war, served to underscore the country„s
autonomy and made it a model for other former colonies gaining their independence from the West.1

Mill Owners’ Association Building, Ahmedabad

Fig 1.

Fig 1 : Mill Owners‟ Association Building West façade

In 1945, the textile mill owners of Ahmedabad emerged from the Second World War in a position of
consolidated strength in a city they had long dominated economically and politically. The Second
World War proved to be a huge boon for the industry, as cotton production for the Allied war efforts
resulted in record profits.2

Built in 1954, the Mill Owners‟ Association Building stands on the West bank of the Sabarmati river.
The Sabarmati river itself being one of the important elements of continuity right from 1915 when
Gandhi set up the Sabarmati Ashram which later became the site of an important building by Charles
Correa in 1960s.

1
Belluardo, James. “Bombay-Ahmedabad”, Seminarreise Herbstsemester 2008, ETH Zürich, 2008, 9.
2
Joshi, B.B. “The Post-War Problems of Indian Cotton Textile Industry”, Ahmedabad: Gujarati Printing Press, 1947, 3
The Mill Owners‟ Association Building is conceived in béton-brut structure with brick walls on the
North and South. The West façade has brise-soleil to shade the interior spaces. A long pedestrian
ramp connects the bottom two floors with the ramp being a primary element of design in the front
elevation. The strict organisation of the floors and the spaces along the wind direction is reflective of
Corbusier‟s earlier projects where he orients the plan as per strict axes and pilotis system .

The situation of the building in a garden dominating the river furnishes a picturesque spectacle of the
cloth dyers washing and drying their cotton materials on the sand in the company of herons, cows,
buffalos, and donkeys half immersed in the water to keep cool. Such a panorama was an invitation to
attempt, by means of the architecture, to frame views from each floor of the building- for the benefit of
the staff in their daily work, for festive evenings, for night views from the stage of the assembly hall,
and also from the roof.3
Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Continuities of form, materials and building elements

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Fig 2 : Textile dyers and washermen with donkey‟s by Sabarmati

Fig 3 : Mill Owners‟ Association Building, color schemes
Fig 4 :Pilotis inside first floor of Mill Owners‟ Association Building
Fig 5 : Plan of three floors of the Mill Owners‟ Association Building

This first building of Corbusier in Ahmedabad could be examined in close connection to his ongoing
institutional projects in Chandigarh and also that in France, the prime being Unite d‟Habitation,
Marsellies of 1952. Also certain reflections of his architectural discourse developed during the 1920s
and 1930s can be found evolving in this project in India. The Dom-Ino House of 1915 and Villa
Savoye of 1929 also possibly guided the conception of the architecture of Mill Owners‟ Association
Building.

3
Le Corbusier, “Oeuvre Complète”, 1952-1957, 146.
If we start critically examining the structural system, columns and slabs; the rectangular pilotis of the
Dom-Ino House flow through time across Villa Savoye and to Mill Owners‟ Association Building, to
become large cylindrical pilotis accompanied by rectangular ones on a 4x3 grid. At the same time ,
the curved form of the ground floor of Villa Savoya manifests in the curved in-situ concrete shear wall
which encapsulates the main meeting room in the Mill Owners‟ Association Building. The break from
strict geometry of Villa Savoye and Unite d‟Habitation, towards open plan and inclusion of curved
forms within the interior of the plan can be seen as a discontinuity of form. This discontinuity of one
popular form and evolving into a new type can be further substantiated by the form of plan, curved
shell walls and roof at the Notre dame du haut, Ronchamp, which was materialised just after Mill
Owners‟ Association Building.

Le Corbusier hoped to establish in India a second machine age that would correct the ills of the first
machine age that now ravaged the United States and Europe.4

The solid, meanwhile, houses the building‟s assembly hall, where the entirety of the association could
meet and debate policy. The upper story, thus presents its users on its open side an image of
domineering repose, while concealing the assembly where decisions are made. At the same time that
leisure space made its way into the building, the building now projected itself into the garden space,
with the introduction of an angular cafeteria for the office clerks on the ground floor that burst through
the rear façade of the building. 5

From Corbusier to regionalism and critical internationalism

A close analysis of the building form, material and elements in the Mill Owners‟ Association Building
can be seen as Corbusier evolving from his avant garde style post WWI era logical planning to an
approach of critical regionalism. The tropical climate of India, the very different solar and thermal
behaviour of spaces and materials made Corbusier adapt to certain experimentations in building
components, for example, the dominance of deep box-crate type spaces accompanied by brise-
soleils on the West façade created an interesting interplay of light and shade in India, which would
have not been possible in the same way in Europe.

The river front view on the East accompanied by the social functions of the building allowed him to
conceive the floor plans specially to suit the client‟s social requirements efficiently at the same time
creating a new discourse of social fabric through architecture by allowing clerks and lower staffs to
access many pleasing parts of the building. The ramp itself stands as a testimony to this puncture in
the traditional social culture of India towards a more inclusive employer-employee relationship.

The success of this building paved way for few more projects of Corbusier in Ahmedabad, most of
them commissioned by the wealthy businessmen families. And along with it Corbusier reused many of
the forms and elements in the future projects of Villa Sarabhai, Shodhan House and Sanskriti Kendra,
Ahmedabad, which shaped the discourse of critical regionalism and critical internationalism in South
Asia later in the 20th century.

Bibliography :

1. Cohen, Jean Louis. “The future of architecture since 1889”, Phaidon Books, 2016

2. Williamson, Daniel. “Modern Architecture and Capitalist Patronage in Ahmedabad, India 1947-
1969”, New York University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2016

3. Wolfgang, Schett. “Bombay-Ahmedabad”, Seminarreise Herbstsemester 2008, ETH Zürich, 2008

4
Le Corbusier, “Une Page Blanche,” in Informations Commerciales et Economiques de l‟Inde, ed.le Secrétaire commercial de
l‟Ambassade de l‟Inde, Paris: Ambassade de l‟Inde, 1952, 11-12

5
Williamson, Daniel. “Modern Architecture and Capitalist Patronage in Ahmedabad, India 1947-1969”, New York University,
ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2016, 141.
ANNEXE 1 : GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF “CONTINUITY” OF CORBUSIER’S WORKS
ANNEXE 2 : SELECTED PHOTOGRAPH FOR EXAMINATION (TEST/INTERVIEW)