Snehal Shah by Mapin Publishing

Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper are editors, critics, writers and publishers of UME, an independent international magazine available online, www.umemagazine.com. Haig Beck is a former editor of Architectural Design. With Jackie Cooper, he edited and published International Architect. They write widely on architecture and design.

His concerns for response to climate and making spaces that are lively are informed by his historical understanding: this guides the spatial language of his architecture, the functional concepts, and the aesthetically appealing elements and motifs he creatively transforms and incorporates into his own designs. Today he is one of India’s foremost contemporary architects. Professor MA Dhaky, Director (Emeritus), American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon

Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com

Akshara http://snehalshaharchitect.com/research.html

oTHER TITLES oF InTEREST By MAPIn Learning from Mumbai Practicing Architecture in Urban India Pelle Poiesz, Gert Jan Scholte and Sanne Vanderkaaij Gandhi

ALSo By THE AkSHARA FoUnDATIon Architectural models Works of Architect Balkrishna Doshi Forthcoming Water Structures of Western India UME 23

PRInTED In CHInA

SneHAl SHAH

Snehal Shah studied at CEPT University, Ahmadabad, graduating in 1980. His thesis was supervised by BV Doshi. He undertook postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association Graduate School in London under Royston Landau, and Robin Middleton supervised his history paper on Labrouste and Quatremere de Quincy. He worked in Lugarno at the studio of Mario Botta for two years before returning to India in 1987. In that year he passed the RIBA Part Three professional exam and began practice in Ahmedabad. Since 1987 he has been an honorary professor at CEPT. He has lectured in Asia, Europe and the USA. His writings on the history of Indian architecture include the book Ahmedabad, with George Michell. ‘The Water Architecture of Western India’ is a forthcoming edition of UME.

Dr George Michell, art and architecture historian

Architect

The Akshara Foundation was launched in 1977 at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, by a group of students. Between 1977 and 1982, they published the magazine Akshara (presiding spirit). In 2000 Snehal Shah revived the Foundation to promote the culture of architecture. The Akshara Foundation hosts lectures and exhibitions and publishes books and catalogues. It offers two scholarships annually to Indian students to study and document temple architecture. Around six lectures a year given by distinguished architects and scholars from around the world are open to students, academics and architects in Ahmedabad.

One explanation of Snehal’s amazing range of projects and diversity of designs is that he has strategically located himself between the past and the future. Snehal’s intense interest in architectural history, especially of western India, the region from which he hails, has sensitised him to traditional stone and timber constructional techniques, rigorous geometric codes of design, and local environmental conditions, especially the scarcity of water in an arid landscape. Returning to India thus equipped, Snehal has over the last 20 years embarked upon an ambitious repertory of private and public buildings that testifies to a unique cosmopolitan sensibility and refined aesthetic.

SneHAl SHAH

Snehal Shah’s interest in the monumental architecture of the past – the Renaissance and subsequent periods in Europe, and also medieval architecture in western India, especially the Solanki period of the 10th-13th centuries – astonishes. He has researched medieval water architecture in western India, and his studies in that hitherto neglected field are producing remarkably insightful information.

MAPin

In learning to build, his architecture adopted a variety of expressions – with the constant being the will to manipulate light and ventilation to the best advantage. He studies vernacular techniques as well as learns from wider Indian exemplars and also Western architectural history. References from all these find their way into his buildings, along with his debt to the geometry of Louis Kahn and Mario Botta. In this book, Shah exhibits the work of 25 years in practice. He describes his concerns and development as an architect in parallel with the emergence of India onto the world stage as a mighty, populous, modern nation rich in contradictions.

Architect

Snehal Shah believes in making architecture that is ‘of its time’, as a Gujarati proverb states, vakhat tevu vaju. History confirms that buildings appropriate to their time, place and climate, endure. In learning to build, his architecture adopted a variety of expressions – with the constant being the will to manipulate light and ventilation to the best advantage. He studies vernacular techniques as well as learns from wider Indian exemplars and also Western architectural history. References from all these find their way into his buildings, along with his debt to the geometry of Louis Kahn and Mario Botta. In this book, Shah exhibits the work of 25 years in practice. He describes his concerns and development as an architect in parallel with the emergence of India onto the world stage as a mighty, populous, modern nation rich in contradictions.

Snehal Shah

Architect

2 Works 2000-2009

Snehal Shah

Architect

editors Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper

MAPiN PUBLiShiNG in association with AKShArA FOUNDAtiON

First published in India in 2014 by Mapin Publishing Pvt Ltd and Akshara Foundation simultaneously published in the United states of America in 2014 by Grantha Corporation E: mapin@mapinpub.com Distributed in North America by Antique Collectors’ Club T: 1 800 252 5231 • F: 413 529 0862 E: info@antiquecc.com • www.antiquecollectorsclub.com

4 Works 2000-2009

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All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book must be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The moral rights of authors of this work are asserted. Students, Professors and teaching professionals are encouraged for the use of this material in classroom and are free to copy material as required, please credit appropriately.

ISBN: 978-81-89995- 91-1 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-1-935677-46-8 (Grantha) LCCN: 2014935996

Captions: Cover: ram krishna Mission temple; see page 28 Frontispiece: Architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office; see page 76 This page: TCs IT / ITEs sez Garima Park; see page 142

Publication design: Nidhi sah Editorial coordination: ketaki Gujar Processing and Printing: Artron Art (Group) Co. Ltd, China Printed on oJI Japan Topkote 128 gsm matte art paper

Works 2000-2009 5

6 Works 2000-2009

This book is dedicated to those who remain with us in spirit. My father Prin Mc Shah Professor royston Landau Professor (Dr) MN Vora John Burton Page Anant raje

ContentS

Acknowledgements

To build on dusty plains Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper

Five lessons Snehal Shah

WorkS 2000-2009 | IndIa 2000-2009

140

WorkS 2010- | IndIa 2010-

198

the early yearS of praCtICe | IndIa 1987-1996

Ram Krishna Mission temple, Porbandar

142

TCS IT/ITES SEZ, Garima Park,

200

Family house, Ahmedabad

210

Family house, Ahmedabad

216

Anar Chemicals office extension and

Gandhinagar 40

Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad

170

Vice-Chancellor and Registrar’s house, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad

Family guest house, Bhat

factory, Ahmedabad 178

76 90 92 102

Weekend house, Suramya, Ahmedabad 226

Architect’s office, Ahmedabad 182

Zydus Centre for Excellence, Ahmedabad

186

Bhavnagar Energy Corporation Ltd,

Temple wall, Nadiad Bhavnagar

Family house , Ahmedabad Bk Majumdar Institute of Business

192

Shalom International School, Jaipur

196

Ravishankar Maharaj Samadhi, Bochasan

Administration, Ahmedabad 110

Family house, Udaipur

118

Architect’s house, Ahmedabad

134

Shivam Hospital, Nadiad

8 Works 2000-2009

UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology, Ahmedabad

230

InterIor deSIgn | IndIa 1987-

244

UnbUIlt WorkS | IndIa 1987-

270

praCtICe CUltUre

232

Family house, Ahmedabad

246

The Gateway Hotel

272

office organisation Kruti Choksi

236

Family house, Chennai

250

karnavati Club 276

240

Wedding pavilions, Ahmedabad

Akshara Foundation

256

Ahmedabad University

262

Cadilla Laboratories warehouse

280

Lectures

266

TCS software campus

282

selected publications

283

Colleagues and consultants

283

Photography credits

Kruti Choksi

Works 2000-2009 9

aCknoWledgementS

i thank the people who helped produce this book, as well as many who helped me to understand the built environment and to make architecture, and also those who gave me both, encouragement and friendship. Many have deeply influenced my thinking and career. Some are no longer in my life but i remember them often and owe them much. My late father, Mc Shah, nourished a dream to become an architect. And much, much else besides. Professor roy Landau taught me in the history and theory program at the AA Graduate School in London. roy, Micha Bandini and Sibel Bozdogan developed the concept of positional analysis in 1979 to explain why an architect always makes buildings in a certain way. i helped Professor John Burton Page on my return to india with a book about the medieval architecture of Ahmedabad, and learnt from him the importance of a glossary. conversations with Professor Anant raje, a former teacher, from 2004 until his death in 2011, were of great significance for me. the late Dr ZA Desai demonstrated the importance of epigraphy while i was studying architecture. Professor MN Vora taught me to run a practice successfully. Memorable teachers at the cePt University in Ahmedabad include Piraji Sagara; the late Kurual Verkey; KB Jain; rJ Vasavada and Krishna Shahstri. Most important was Professor BV Doshi who was my thesis guide in 1979. Doshi introduced me to Joseph Allen Stein with whom i served my practical training after third year. i am grateful to Professor AK Jain for sound advice on running the practice; also our chartered accountant, chandreshbhai Shah, who taught me to be honest with statutory bodies and thus to sleep well. his colleagues, Pragneshbhai Dharia and harsh Kejriwal, now also help us to perform the regular accounting rituals. i add my thanks to Suketu Shah; Shripal Shah; Prakash Dalal and Mukesh Ahuja. in the early years, Uday Parikh helped ensure sound management practices. i record my gratitude to all my colleagues and single out Kamlesh Kavade, with us since our inception, and Mahesh raval, Bharat Gajjar and Aarti Makwana, also many others who are acknowledged in the end pages. i also wish to acknowledge Ashok Prajapati; Naval Dave; Dhara Paregi and Jitubhai rawal, who have worked with us in the past.

10 ACkNoWLEDGEMENTs

We are honoured to have Professor MA Dhaky at the office on most days, a scholar who shares his wisdom.

i spent nearly two wonderful years in Lugano in the office of Mario Botta before returning to india. his studio, very small then, taught me how to design.

consultants enable architects to realise works. i acknowledge in particular our civil engineer Suresh Shah (SL Shah), who with his son hemal Shah often works alongside us as an invaluable professional partner.

this book would not have happened if in 1983 in London on a cold, wet, grey day i had not made a call to hackney, to haig Beck and Jackie cooper. i was hoping to work for their magazine, International Architect. Our first conversation about this book took place in 2006, and since then, whenever we have met, we have discussed ideas. the book owes much to haig’s third eye and to Jackie’s both eyes; one sees beyond, the other sees what is there.

And there are innumerable associates, trainees, consultants and also building workers whose names i mostly never even know; all help realise our visions – including those working onsite in 45 degree c heat: heroes. No architect is complete without good clients. in the order in which they commissioned us, our clients include Dr MN Dhuldhoya; Shri Navneetbhai choksi; Shri hrishikeshbhai Mafatlal; Shri Gautambhai Adani and family; Mr Ar Laddha; Shri Shrenikbhai Kasturbhai; the late Shri UN Mehta; Mr S ramadorai; Shri Pankajbhai Patel; Mr rajesh Mehta; Shri Sanjaybhai Lalbhai; Shri harshadbhai Mehta; Mr Ashok Bhatia and Ms Annie Prasad; Mr Sudhir Mankad; Mr AB Panchal; Mr N chandra; Mr SN Subrahmanyan; Dr rajiv Modi; Swami Srikaranandji and Swami Gopalanandji; Shri Prafull Anubhai; Dr Sudarshan iyengar; Dr rajendrabhai Khimani; Mr Apurva Shah and Mr Binoy Gardi; Mr and Mrs Sandeep Mittal; Dr and Dr Mrs Alkeshbhai Shah; Mr and Mrs Kamlesh Parikh; Mr and Mrs Jagatbhai Patel; Dr and Dr Mrs Bipinbhai Baxi; Mr Dileepbhai choksi; Mr NK Parikh; Mr Vinayak Deshpande. Friends i met as students from whom i learned things i cherish are Mohit Gujral; Achal Bakeri; Dinesh Mehta; Miki and Madhavi Desai; Vidu chavda; the late Akhil Dadkar; Muktiraj chuhan; Urvashi Mehta; Nimesh Patel and Parul Jhaveri; Abhimanyu Dalal; Ajay Patel; Satish Patel; Naren ranpuria; Mayur Vashi; Prerna Patel and ranjit Singh. From my 1973 Batch in particular, i acknowledge raj Mohan Shetty; ramesh Kanzaria; Kartik Vora; Atul Dave and Abde Koita. i thank friends in europe whose warmth and support helped me to survive in a cold climate: richard Blurton and Martin Williams; irenee and Natalie Scalbert; Ada Gansach; Jonathan Wilson; Marian Van Der Waals; Luigi and Mya Beltrandi; Omar and Anna thali; Sebastiano Brandolini; Giampietro and Silvia Parboni Arquati; Stephen Jameson; terri Donovan; Li Shiquaio; ross Feller; Janet Abrams; Maurizio Pelli; Urs Kulling; roberto Bricolla; epprecht family. in europe i met haig Beck and Jackie cooper; Francis Oeser; Attilio Petruccioli; Mario Botta and Dr George Michell. From George i learned about western music and connections between music and architecture, and to see indian architecture more closely.

Production of the book required a dedicated team. Nidhi Sah, the graphic designer; rahul Singh who made drawings suitable for publication; Kruti choksi for patiently understanding our practice culture and Amit Pasricha, Devansh Jhaveri, Antonio Martinelli and enrico cano who photographed the buildings. i am grateful to Shoonya Kumar; Madhuri rao; ramalakshami; Anupa Alex; Mansi Bapna and Shubhra raje for help and advice in researching and refining material. Bhakti Shah; Alex d’Aram; Antara Patel and Ankona Das helped in preparing and coordinating the initial material. Ketaki Gujar meticulously shepherded the many phases of production. Mapin publishing and especially Bipin Shah for his thoughtful insights on the practical aspects of publishing. Finally, i acknowledge the love and support of my family. My mother, hasumatiben, has always showered me with unqualified love. i thank my elder brother Mukeshbhai and Shilpa Bhabhi, my younger sister Priti, and Ajaybhai choksi, and my brother-in-law rajiv, Alpa, and my sister-in-law rita Ben. My uncle Dr ramesh c Shah always stood by me, and even more since my father’s death. i acknowledge the central contribution to my life and career to my dear wife, Sujata. On our honeymoon, we visited architectural ruins, and she still accompanies me on my various architectural pilgrimages. Our daughter Sunaina shares the same passion for architecture, and she has my love always.

Snehal Shah Ahmedabad 2014

i worked as an assistant architect for Francis Oeser during my struggling student years at the AA. his talks on islamic architecture triggered an interest in travelling to the Middle east.

ACkNoWLEDGEMENTs 11

to bUIld on dUSty plaInS haig Beck and Jackie cooper

Some architects are fortunate to serve an apprenticeship and learn from masters. in addition, the cultural and physical environment they are born into can also form them. Before Mario Botta – Snehal Shah’s master – before Louis Kahn (Botta’s master), before ancient rome (the masonry source of Kahn’s tectonic philosophy), there were the brick cities of the indus Valley. Just south of Ahmedabad, where the dusty plain turns to salt marsh, lie the archaeological remains of Lothal, one of the great cities of the ancient indus Valley. Like a Leggo city, every surface, every architectural detail and engineering feature of Lothal is made from a single modular unit: a brick. And like the bricks it was built from, the city is modular and geometrically ordered. Snehal Shah may have trained under Botta, and through him received Kahn’s architectural vision, but it was at an early age in his homeland, on the plains of Gujarat, that he imbibed a 5000-year tradition of brick construction. Shah grew up visiting friends and relatives in Ahmedabad’s old city. the traditional houses were designed to counter the heat. they face north-south to avoid direct sunlight, and stand close-packed around narrow lanes. to minimise the conduction of heat, they are constructed from brick and wood, with thick walls and high ceilings. At the centre of these houses is a shaded atrium: a thermal chimney. While a student, and under the direction of George Michell, Shah measured the majestic trabeated granite ruins of Vijayanagara, the abandoned hindu city built on the Deccan plateau. Michell also encouraged him to continue his interest in the stepwells of Gujarat, a project that was to become a life-long work of scholarship. Stepwells cleave the earth with steep-sided, masonry-lined walls buttressed by serried, multi-storeyed platforms of ornately carved stonework. As if treading on the ceiling of an upside-down Gothic cathedral, the descent to the well-head is down flights of steps into a vertical volume pierced by shafts of sunlight: a shadowy place of watery reflections that offers cool relief from the hot dry plain above. Ahmedabad is the site of some of Le corbusier’s and Louis Kahn’s greatest works. Snehal Shah’s family home was designed by an architect. this is the modern architectural context he grew up in. Shah enrolled at Ahmedabad’s cePt (centre of environmental Planning and technology), india’s great architectural school, where he was a student of BV Doshi, the founder of cePt and one of the fathers of indian modernism. Doshi had been Le corbusier’s assistant in Paris before returning to Ahmedabad to supervise Le corbusier’s projects in the city, and Doshi also worked closely with Kahn and Kahn’s assistant, Anant raje, on the indian institute of Management.

12 To BUILD oN DUsTy PLAINs

Shah chose the Architectural Association in London for his graduate studies, rather than harvard where his family had expected him to go. he arrived in London in time to study history and theory under the direction of robin Middleton and roy Landau and at that magical moment when Alvin Boyarsky was chairman of the AA. (Also, by chance, he came to work on our magazine, International Architect.) to round off his architectural training before returning to Ahmedabad to establish a practice, Shah learnt italian and worked for two years in Switzerland as an assistant to Mario Botta – who as a young man had worked not only for Kahn but also Le corbusier and carlo Scarpa.

Since then there has followed a series of projects of increasing formal sophistication and clarity as he pares back extraneous detail and simplifies the palette of finishes: exposed concrete, painted render, stone cladding. the figurative modelling of facades – particularly the curves in plan, the circular windows and the rectilinear incisions – express the plastic nature of the underlying in situ concrete structure. Shah’s understanding of local stonemasonry skills is particularly apparent in his country houses, where traditional random stone finishes are juxtaposed against polished marble reveals, and in the inventive use of thin slabs of roughhewn granite as brise-soleil.

Kahn and Le corbusier, two great masters of modern architecture, had the measure of india: its climate and building technologies and its people. Only a single and closely connected generation – Botta and Doshi – stands between them and Snehal Shah. he has had (largely by accident) a privileged architectural education, and to understand his architecture one must appreciate the influence of the various strands of this education.

internally the buildings now exhibit a spatial clarity of geometric purity. the squared-circle drum form of the entry hall of the Amrut Mody School of Management, with winding double flights of stairs, daylight-washed curving walls and supporting paired columns, is a volumetric tour de force worthy of Louis Kahn – to which the design pays homage. the marble paved, cloister-like, colonnaded courtyard funnels in breezes at every corner to offer cool and shaded relief to the parched grounds and roaring city traffic beyond.

this book separates Snehal Shah’s oeuvre into three periods. One section deals with the early years of practice, showing projects executed before he turned 40. the reality that it takes many years to master the technical craft of architecture, to hone managerial skills and clarify a design philosophy, gives rise to the truism that architects do not begin to produce mature work until they turn 40. in this respect, the projects from his early years of practice are instructive. they reveal a young architect, supported by his clients, seeking what a writer might call his ‘voice’. Shah’s first house is full of ideas – and a critic might say, too full of ideas – that are to be recurring themes in later works: the central atrium space; the north-south orientation of habitable rooms; the modular geometry and symmetrical ordering of the plan; exposed masonry (brick) construction; decorative patterning based on masonry coursing and craftsmanship; the deeply incised, four-square, muscular simplicity of the building form; and the figuring of squares, circles and 45 degree angles in plan and section and at a variety of scales. Lessons learnt from Botta and from the Gujarati vernacular are being synthesised here, and in the concrete rainwater spouts there is a glimpse of the impression Le corbusier makes on later work. Snehal Shah’s moment of architectural maturity arrives in the design for his own office. By this stage he has established the limits of indian craftsmanship and the need for ever more restrained and muscular architectonic forms to offset crude workmanship and inattention to detail frequently encountered in the local construction industry. the lessons of Le corbusier’s climate-controlling brise-soleil (‘sun breakers’) are adapted here to counter the east-west orientation of the site; and the plan is arranged around an open-sided atrium to promote cross ventilation in all the office/studios.

the software campus designed for the tata conglomerate was built to accommodate 12,000 workstations plus support staff (to put things in perspective: that’s about the same number of people at work in the empire State Building). By any standard this is a building of considerable scale, but for all its size, it seems to hover ever so slightly above its garden site, while reinforcing the earth colours and the horizontality of the surrounding plain in the cladding of alternate bands of red Agra and pink Jodhpur sandstone. Deep incisions model the stone-clad facades, limit solar heat loads, reduce glare internally and provide office workers with shaded break-out spaces. inside, the vast north-south-oriented modular floor plates are brought to order and given legibility with three curving longitudinal atria that plunge to the full depth of the main office building. each atrium is wider at the base than at the roof. this shelving form – narrowing towards the light – helps maintain consistent light levels on every floor. in practice this ensures that the thousands of workstations are, to a functional degree, naturally lit. On a more poetic plane, there is a cultural memory here in these long, narrow, top-lit spaces of the cool depths of Gujarati stepwells. it is this lyrical dimension of Snehal Shah’s work that appeals directly to us. in a practice that now spans 25 years, we have seen him learn how best to fuse the rough materials and the limited construction skills of indian building sites into a concrete poetry, designing works of contemporary architecture that are in tune with the people and the dusty plains of Gujarat.

To BUILD oN DUsTy PLAINs 13

five lessons Snehal Shah

14 Works 2000-2009

As part of the riBA Part three examination in London in 1985, i was required to write an essay on why i wanted to become an architect. i recall vividly what i wrote, after some soul-searching to express an honest answer. that essay informed my later distillation of the basis for practice to five lessons. these lessons are crucial and integral to our practice. the essay began with a confession: i had not heard of the riBA before completing Part One as a student in Ahmedabad. i passed the Part three exam to become a registered architect.

Amrut Mody School of Management; see page 40 Works 2000-2009 15

one: learnIng from maSterS and gUrUS

Ahmedabad is dominant on the world map of architecture only because Le corbusier and Louis Kahn built fine buildings here, and Frank Lloyd Wright designed a project that was not built. As a boy, i remember seeing these buildings, not knowing who designed them yet wondering how those forms were dreamed up. My father gave me a Meccano set and i began spending more time constructing things than playing in the street. Unfortunately, i could not exclusively keep the set for very long as my younger sister had other plans for it. then when i was about seven our local architect entered my life. My father engaged him to build an institute. he always arrived with beautifully rendered perspective drawings, but one day to my surprise he left behind a clutch pencil, which i had not encountered before. to me it was a pen only for drawing that never needs sharpening. the prayer hall of my secondary school was also significant. i would look at the hall, convinced that it was the space and the light that made this time of morning prayer interesting. to my friends it was simply a hall resembling a corridor, yet i resolved to build a hall like this one day. So those images of the buildings by Kahn and corbu, my Meccano constructions, the local architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s models and especially his clutch pencil, and the prayer hall of my school all drew me towards the decision to become an architect. i did not realise then that although being an architect has many satisfactions and pleasures, it is extremely difficult to make good architecture. As interesting a profession as it is, architecture is equally painful; it is tough to continue for years maintaining zeal and energy in the face of many obstacles and disappointments. When a building is completed, it leaves you even greedier to achieve still better architecture. But no matter how hard you work, the result seems fragmented rather than whole, always falling short of your original ideas.

even after 25 years, i am still learning and do not yet understand enough. Knowledge of making still seems only rudimentary. With each new project, i experience pain when first putting pencil to paper: what should be the appropriate mode of thinking?Â Perhaps this pain is the reason we develop several alternatives for every project, even after we already have a good sound concept that matches the brief. We examine alternative concepts and work up developed schemes with drawings and models. in the initial discussions with clients and later with consultants, many things crop up, both anticipated and unexpected. having already analysed several design propositions, we can be flexible, lateral and incorporate new criteria as the project progresses. On learning from masters, the work of Mario Botta has been fundamentally inspiring. in the studio, Botta often discussed the design process. he demonstrated the strength of negative and positive, and how one carves form from singular mass. When carved, the solid, geometrical mass becomes even more powerful, fragmented yet at the same time complete. Botta reinvented the crucial element of the brise-soleil, used widely by Le corbusier, in the tcS building at Noida (on which we worked as associate architects). he developed an innovative way to deal with the indian climate. Another inspiration, Balkrishna Doshi, designs both strict and informal works, a rich and paradoxical formal expressive palette. My professor, Anant raje, showed me how to look critically at architecture and to see how the masters achieved their designs. i am always learning, and lessons are always available. Making architecture requires more than intellect and experience; it depends on imagination too. imagination must be fed and nurtured, and often inspiration comes from masters and gurus, past and present. each project is a journey of discovery.

facing:

Brise-soleil cut south light and form planting boxes that help ensure the studio is free of glare. Behind the fins, the open facade admids light and ventilation.

Mill Ownersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association, Ahmedabad: Le corbusier 16 FIvE LEssoNs

indian institute of Management, Ahmedabad: Louis Kahn

tata consultancy Services, Noida: Mario Botta

Works 2000-2009 17

tWo: learnIng from hIStory

there are not textbooks for architecture like there are for medicine and accountancy. two plus two always makes four; but architecture entails inspiration and synergy, meaning that a resolution can be either minus or plus but never exactly four. Why so? While studying at cePt and the AA, i wondered about the temples, mosques and other buildings from the past i visited, initially unaware of their impact on me. even now, i am struck with awe by how amazing, wonderful and meaningful many historical structures are. the more i visit them, even though many are in a ruined state, the more i discover. they are like trees standing tall through the extremes of time and weather, giving shelter to all and lessons to anyone who enquires. i wonder too what it does to me when i occupy and move through the ruined spaces: i become charged, or i forget everything else. My wife jokes that i forget to eat, drink and sleep when i travel to visit these structures, which i do several times a year, just to marvel even if i do not always understand them.

Visiting buildings of history has allowed me to see many things. One is an image of the ruin, which fascinated architects during the neoclassical period. however, for me the fragmented image is of something that looks complete yet is incomplete. it is a quality we try to invest our projects with: to make buildings like ruins. Unconsciously perhaps, our projects are imbued with making a building complete while maintaining a fragmented aesthetic. the ruins of Palmyra and the temples of Kiradu – both in the middle of desert – look complete and yet they are in ruins. At the Kund vav of Dedadra, a stepwell with temples surrounding it, and in the courtyards of the Alhambra – both where architecture is composed around the central element of water – you wonder whether it is the water or the buildings that are primary. Which historical building has taught me the most? they cannot be ranged in chronological or typological order. their influence come and go, making one initial impression, then often fading and returning with redoubled intensity.

facing:

Lessons of repetition, rhythm and balance inform this perspective, finding completion in the reflections of the floor.

rudabai stepwell, Ahmedabad, 1499 AD 18 FIvE LEssoNs

Amiens cathedral, France, 1270 AD

Works 2000-2009 19

three: ClImate

Perhaps the most crucial lesson offered by history is response to climate. People now talk about green buildings and sustainable architecture and critical regionalism. Architecture, past and present, is validated by an appropriate response to climate and location, which amounts to all these things. No one in past centuries while designing a building thought to themselves: i will only make a building that is climatically responsive. Yet historical and vernacular buildings have always adhered to practical and aesthetic architectural principles developed to answer the great implacable forces of climate, place and nature. climate remains a constant primary design consideration. in designing buildings, architects need to develop imaginative responses to both the ordinary and extraordinary impacts of climate â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and changing climate. Often they need to go no further than to look to the proven, refined architectural lessons of the past. the multi-storeyed historical pol houses of Ahmedabad are a constant personal inspiration, built around a central courtyard atrium, giving light and ventilation to the interiors as well as comfortable sheltered external living places, and ensuring security and privacy. the colonial verandah also provides comfortable living spaces between indoors and outdoors, differently oriented yet climatically appropriate. these elements have their modern counterparts in our designs.

colonial verandah, Pondicherry, 18th century 20 FIvE LEssoNs

house at Sam, rajasthan

A lesson in the importance of the sun is delivered by the differing orientations of two stepwells, both built in the 16th century at more or less at the same time and close to each other in Ahmedabad, one commissioned by a hindu queen and other by a Muslim courtly lady. the Bai harir stepwell is oriented north-south, while the rudabai stepwell is oriented east-west. At Bai harir, the north-facing deep well is almost never in shadow, direct sunlight penetrating the space and enhancing the exquisite well shaft with cheerful light. the rudabai stepwell is mostly experienced in shadow and thus the space is less vivid. So we learn that it is preferable to orient a long building north-south. An example is the tcS Garima Park building, where the quality of light of the main atrium and ancillary spaces is vivid and life-enhancing. But if for some reason it is not possible to take advantage of the sun in this way, with a site that is oriented east-west, then we carve out spaces to make areas that face north and south, and use borrowed light. Light takes many forms: direct, indirect, borrowed. it streams through sky lights, and clerestories, or is filtered by louvres, brise-soleil, screens and baffles. it is the foremost design concern.

Padmanabh Puram Palace, Kerala, 1601

10m

RUDABAI STEPWELL , ADALAJ

PLAN

above: the bold, abstracted tracery punched into a sinuous masonry wall ensures the interior is kept free of glare yet enjoys breezes and light. in hot, arid western india, stone is an appropriate material for the harsh climate. its durability speaks of architectural authority.

DADAHARI STEP WELL , AHMEDABAD

rudabai stepwell, Adalaj, 1499

PLAN

10m

Bai harir stepwell, Ahmedabad, 1499 THrEE: CLIMATE 21

foUr: learnIng throUgh empIrICISm

i have presented our work in Sri Lanka, israel, Switzerland, italy, hong Kong, china and the USA. in discussions afterwards, students often ask, how do you make money? Or perhaps, how do you become famous? My reply is, please do the work and the money will follow. the biggest reward is not the fee but the satisfaction of standing in front of a building when it is finished and the client says, i like it; and you also tell yourself, yes it works – even though, inevitably, it falls short of what you had envisaged. that is the biggest reward. each work follows from the previous projects in an empirical chain of gathering knowledge, information, experience. there is often a desire to take an idea further in the next project, even though the site and program might be different. the essence of an idea is impartial and immortal: it never dies or becomes stale. it can develop, mature, transform. history shows that the different architectural styles – whether renaissance, Gothic, chalukyan, Kakatian or Moghul – distil an idea that produces buildings for decades and sometimes centuries.

We learn by doing, either working at the site or on the drawing board. the courtyard at the centre of the single-family house is a crucial space. Somehow, we still have not been able to master the size, shape and proportioning of this element as gracefully as the pol houses of Ahmedabad. One hundred and fifty years ago, many were built, though we do not have information about who designed them and the circumstances in which they were built. What were the precise criteria governing the street patterns and the size and configuration of the courtyards open to the sky? With modern life, it is necessary to cover over this space to prevent rain from entering. We have designed covered courtyards but never to our complete satisfaction: a square plan in the centre of the house; one longer on the south side; one carved out aligning west-east (governed by site constraints) – yet none captures the essence of the pol house courtyard. this is an element we are still learning to master empirically.

We learn as we go along, from the first brickwork house to the latest house in stone, using the material without any surface treatment, simply as stone.

Achyut Kuki’s Mosque, dome ceiling, 1469 22 FIvE LEssoNs

Darya Khan’s tomb, squinch, Ahmedabad, 1453

typical mosque interior, provincial style, Gujarat, 14th-16th century

above: As a designer, i seek to create spaces that are well lit and structurally meaningful. A consistent design strategy is carving into a volume, working with the material and exploiting its tectonic potential.

FoUr: LEArNING THroUGH EMPIrICIsM 23

fIve: learnIng from mIStakeS

there are good mistakes and there are bad mistakes. the only way you can really judge which is which, is over time. Unfortunately, that time is not set; it can take three months or in one case for us, nine years.

With a changing india, we had to work with multinational organisations and adopt their vocabulary (which we now know to be unnecessary): value engineering, sustainability, user-friendly, etc. in fact, these are mere words. ‘Sustainability’ is fundamental for every building. We know this from the study of vernacular architecture that has endured for hundreds of years. the great modernists of the 20th century – Le corbusier, Louis Kahn, carlo Scarpa or Alvar Aalto – never used these words.

We made a good mistake when designing interiors in having to stay with turnkey projects from initial design to completion, even though this meant giving up several large commissions. it was a question of integrity. At the time our failure to take on the larger projects and abandon a small work was seen by some colleagues as a mistake. But we found out that we must work and run the practice with integrity.

We were carried away during one project and understood only later that what matter are space, light, structure.

india is no different from other countries where developers and property manipulators work hand-in-glove with municipal building authorities to stack cities and suburbs with buildings copied from the West, with mirror-glass facades and imitation of American malls. Unfortunately, they make it very difficult for anyone to get buildings approved that present a different urban model based on climate and context using a wider palette of materials.

Architecture is a permanent form of art. the strength and durability of stone allow this. it is important to learn – and to relearn from history – how to work with masonry. Our learning has also taken place in the quarry where we go to understand particular characteristics of stone we are thinking of using. We have made mistakes for not fully understanding stone. Perhaps it takes a lifetime of close observation of the ways stone is assembled to fully appreciate its physical, structural and aesthetic potential. We use stone a lot. For a temple, we were able to make all the walls in solid stone. For a shrine, we could only skin the surface with stone. On other buildings we have used stone for the entire cladding, or in combination with reinforced concrete as the base material.

F.F.L + 28000

+29100 UNFIN.TOP OF PARAPET LVL +27900 UNFIN.TERRACE LVL

roofs and courtyards are other elements where persistent learning comes often through making good mistakes, or at least by failing to fully realise an ideal – but grasping awareness nevertheless. in learning how best to make a sloping roof over a volume, a building that touched me is the Gandhi Ashram in +24000 FIN.SIXTH FLOOR LVL Ahmedabad, the design surely inspired by Gandhi himself. We attempted to recreate the slope and technically we succeeded; yet we did not capture the absolute essence of the Gandhi exemplar. it is an empirical process eventually +20000 perfected through making mistakes. FIN.FIFTH FLOOR LVL

TOC - 27925

F.F.L + 24000

TOC - 23925

F.F.L + 20000

TOC - 19925

F.F.L + 16000

TOC - 15925

+16000 FIN.FOURTH FLOOR LVL

TERRACE LEVEL

CONFERENCE

F.F.L + 12000

TOC - 11925

F.F.L + 8000

TOC - 7925

+12000 FIN.THIRD FLOOR LVL

STUDIO

+8000 FIN.SECOND FLOOR LVL

-1

TOC - 3925

F.F.L ± 0.00

TOC - 75

13.81

F.F.L + 4000

16.17

ADMINISTRATION

+4000 FIN.FIRST FLOOR LVL

LIBRARY

± 0.00 FIN.GROUND FLOOR LVL WALKWAY

±0.00 M.

tata consultancy Services

SECTION - B B'

TOC - 5625

Architect’s office

Shivam hospital

SECTION

SCALE: -1

SECTION : 1'-1'

24 FIvE LEssoNs N

1' 0

5 5'

10'

- 3000 EXISTING ROAD LVL

10mts.

- 5625 BASEMENT LVL

Amrut Mody School of Management

Family guest house

above: the courtyard in a vernacular pol house is almost perfect. it operates as a central social space for the family. it is climatically tuned, mitigating heat and admitting light, and proportionally it is a pleasing space to occupy. We strive to emulate the lessons of the pol courtyard and fall short of achieving its effortless functionality and spatial character. facing:

Skylights and courtyards ranging in scale from domestic to institutional

FIvE: LEArNING FroM MIsTAkEs 25

Works 2000-2009

There were buildings designed and executed between 1996 and 2000 that followed the philosophy and theoretical position developed since the inception of the practice, that is, architecture as primarily a spatial exercise. But, as with most careers, personal life at times intervenes and takes precedence, and in my case, the sudden death of my father in 1996 left me devastated. This personal loss coincided with the period of recession that resulted in the collapse of many industries and individuals. So things slowed down. But the wheel turns, and a time of opportunity and optimism revived us.

By 2000, 15 years of practice had taught us several things beyond some valuable lessons gained from making mistakes and those that come with making joyous discoveries. the practice shifted between highs and lows, but in time we established a modus operandi for running the office and organising its functioning, executing projects onsite, and design processes in the studio. We realised with some pride that our initial concerns of climate, context and material were indeed of immense value to the projects. these concerns proved and justified the works that followed from 2004 to 2012. they can be seen as part of the tradition of the practice, a vision we had anticipated at the outset while not necessarily understanding its implications or how it was to be achieved. Apart from these perhaps old school criteria, we also had the opportunity to explore and learn from new areas of knowledge with specialised consultants, different contractors and others. Yet the ideals we had set down in our early works were being reinforced. the practice learned, and is still learning, that architecture was, is and will remain primarily a spatial exercise involving quality of light and rational structure suitably embedded in context. i also realised that running a practice was itself a never-ending project. We run the practice as openly as possible â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even though it is under single ownership. the practice still has a way to go, and perhaps allows more associates and limited partnerships in order to expand further. the works of the first ten years of the new millennium demonstrate the challenges of complex contexts and the wider scope of the built environment. this phase of our work is dominated by projects with varied programs and significantly larger scale.

26 Works 2000-2009

India 2000-2009

in the early 1990s, india experienced a significant financial boom, and revival on every economic front was inevitable. the government issued an advertisement to celebrate ‘india Shining’. Several public sectors were privatised, among them financial services; new private and corporate enterprises now emerged in this untapped sector. Privatisation of airlines, banks, educational institutes attracted multinationals to india. As good comes with evil, the urge to speed up and climb higher, faster triggered sudden loss of familiar scale, collapse of craft skills, marginalisation of local materials and vernacular traditions, and the sidelining of whatever remained of indian-ness: understanding the country, its climate and complex contexts. india was and will remain an agriculture-based economy. however, the country was riding the wave of new technology, and masses took to cellular phones, computers and Xboxes. technology would bring benefits and pitfalls to the building industry. the new technological wave implied more work for all and lured well-known architects from around the globe to work in india. the latest materials arrived, including aluminium and curtain glazing that would revolutionise the aesthetic sensibilities of the nation. But the widespread application of curtain glazing is inappropriate to the indian climate and cripples energy resources. india’s developing country status connoted a deficiency in energy for the large populace; and aping the West with superficial glittering curtain walls became a symbol of false growth and prosperity. the rising middle class and upper middle class boosted demands for new life styles that unfortunately included inflated spatial requirements irrelevant and inappropriate to the populous india.

Determination to copy Western culture engendered a mall culture in opposition to the traditional economy of smaller, minor investments made by individuals that depended on a vast population. A street vendor selling vegetables from his handpulled cart faced a challenge from a multinational brand opening a fruit and vegetable counter in air-conditioned mall space. Similarly, small-time fast food street vendors were now competing with even larger multinational organisations selling readymade packaged foods: a country where the daily cooking of fresh food is the norm was buying packaged noodles with expiry dates. Dry stone cladding, while used previously but sparingly by us, became a preferred material in our practice. timber windows and stone were used for permanence as well as insulation; the dry cladding fixing technique creates an insulating air gap. throughout the history of architecture, stone has been used for reasons of permanence, stability, utility and aesthetics. the fact that several indian architects chose to use stone cladding is meaningful. Stone was seen as a true material appropriate to india, with an additional benefit of reducing cladding costs. india was shining before the world, winning the Miss World and Miss Universe beauty pageants, winning the Booker prize for literature, and winning Oscars for indian movies. Other signals placed india in the spotlight. Once a country of snake charmers was now recognised as a software support provider and backbone of other technologies, as call centres to global organisations. the emergence of regional political parties, and also the notion of regionalism – from north to south, east to west – invited all to enter the indian political ring. the computer brought significant changes to our studio and systems of working. the speed achieved in production and decision-making was unprecedented, but the transition time needed to grasp, mull over and experience the work in process was drastically reduced. Drawings were now precise, clean, stark, white, non-transparent. they were coordinated on large A1 plotters and betrayed no trace of the design process. the previous modest, user-friendly blueprints exuded intimacy with the

project, were worked upon and smudged and perhaps telling of the amount of thought and work invested. this affinity of drawing and production revealed the project instantaneously and also conveyed the gradual development of the design, whereas the computer produced flawless drawings where scale was absent and it was impossible to understand the project at a single glance. But this new technology helped us to superimpose and read various complex layers, mostly the different services; and importantly it enabled us to put coffee mugs on our drawing boards without fear of catastrophe. But if we were saved from that kind of disaster, we encountered others equally large: computer viruses, hard disk crashes and (this is india) electricity failures. Our studio adopted and adapted to this technology earlier than most in the country, thanks to some of our larger clients. We use computers in our practice for their efficiency. But we still conceptualise designs on tracing paper on A4/A3/A2 rolls, which we import. i still use a Mayline parallel and a setsquare and two scales of 60 cm and 30 cm, both showing only centimetres, as we were trained to convert from the standard centimetre to any adopted scale. With technological advancement came specialised consultants. Apart from the traditional structural, civil and mechanical, electrical and plumbing consultants, we work with consultants in landscape, synergy, facades, traffic analysis, energy simulation, specialised kitchen design, acoustics and even artificial lighting specialists. the more, the merrier is true in many ways, as buildings take many years to make, and an architect – though a leader – cannot be equipped with every emerging and complex field of knowledge.

Works 2000-2009 27

ram krIShna mISSIon temple Porbandar, 2001

A great earthquake struck Gujarat in 2001 and caused heavy destruction across a vast area, including remote villages. education in these villages came to a standstill, with buildings ruined or damaged. the ram Krishna Mission approached Snehal Shah Architects to rebuild schools. Around 160 basic school structures were built in record time, with the practice overseeing the work. the client was pleased and also commissioned the architects to build a temple in Bharwada. A modern architectural vocabulary was sought, rather than replicate the conventional temple design with gods and goddesses ranged around the walls. the temple is located in the main square, in the midst of the township. the plan is a square that becomes an octagon as it rises towards the pyramidal roof. An upside down quinch creates the stepped form of the pyramid. An open prayer/audience hall allows breezes in from all directions. Wooden doors on the axis of the temple create an enclosure to the shrine. the expected temple symbols are present. the flagpost is located on top of the pyramidal roof. the front prayer hall is square, creating a joint between the main shrine and prayer hall and forming a circumambulation (Pradakhshina path). two squares are generally put together in the place where the idol is located: the two squares accord with stipulations in the religious architectural treatises. the squinches are placed in the four corners, acting as four guardians to ward off evil spirits. the front pyramidal roof over the prayer hall is glass to maximise natural light; and the sun is expressed implicitly as the supreme power.

28 Works 2000-2009

Works 2000-2009 29

COURSE 19

Course 19

SIZES OF STONE: 22" X 0

100

500

15" X 11

1000

" X 6"

1 4

" X 6"

COURSE 20

Course 20

SIZES OF STONE: 22" X 0

100

500

15" X 11

1000

1 4

" X 6" " X 6"

COURSE 21

Course 21

SIZES OF STONE: 22" X 0

100

500

15" X 11

1000

0.5 1m

sizes of stone 22” x 7 1/2 “x 6” 15” x 11 1/4” x 6”

COURSE 22

Course 22

SIZES OF STONE: 22" X 0 N

30 Works 2000-2009

100

500

1000

15" X 11

1 4

" X 6" " X 6"

1 4

" X 6" " X 6"

Works 2000-2009 31

A temple is a design challenge. It demands sensitivities beyond mundane questions of location, climate, materials, aesthetics and functionality. The temple is for the Ram Krishna Mission. After an earthquake in Gujarat devastated buildings in cities and villages throughout the state in 2001, the Mission rebuilt schools and hospitals in several villages. Our entire office spent two days in the region, seeing the extent of the devastation for ourselves. Ram Krishna Mission asked us to design a small temple in Bharwada. This little village is eight kilometres from Porbandar, birthplace of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

32 Works 2000-2009

The temple is rectangular in plan, 20 x 10 m, its longer side oriented on an east-west axis. The plan divides into two squares, each 10 x 10 m, with segregated functions: the prayer hall and the main sanctum. One enters the prayer hall via a small staircase on the western facade. A grid of circular columns supports a reinforced concrete slab above, with a central pyramid skylight. The space is semi-open, delineated by (600 mm) low walls. The main sanctum is small, only 5 x 5 m, with a circumambulatory path. Such a space surrounds the

main sanctum in most Hindu temples, used by devotees to circle the sacred space of the deity. Ram Krishna Mission does not believe in idol worship. Instead there are photographs of spiritual leaders placed in the sanctum. The sanctum has a shikhara (pyramid) roof supported on stone walls. This roof gives the temple its special character. The stones are set at 45 degrees to develop a pattern, forming squinches at every corner. The shikhara is simple and subtle: when examined, the

complexity of its angled detailing seems to dominate the simplicity. As it rises, the main sanctum goes from being square in plan to an octagon, and the squinch form tilts upside down to develop the step-like pyramid. The temple does not register immediately as a building, as only the main sanctum is visible, its 6 m stone shikhara signalling a presence. The temple is built from stone quarried in the nearby town. The stone both speaks of the place and is far more durable than other materials. We expressed the sun as the supreme power. After completion of the temple, a Swami asked where I had

placed the gods and goddesses. My answer was that shadows created by sunlight and reflections on the stone created different gods and goddesses. The client smiled. Most of the buildings that surround the temple are simple residences. We also designed two schools here, and thus a whole community is raised. It is rather special to see an architectural vocabulary in a remote village.

rAM krIsHNA MIssIoN TEMPLE 33

amrUt mody SChool of management with SL Shah, civil engineer Ahmedabad, 2005

the corner site of the management institute campus has busy main roads on two frontages. Across the lesser crowded road is the indian institute of Management â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ahmedabad (iiM-A) designed in 1962, by the great modern master, Louis Kahn. the new college is built well back from the main roads. in front of the building, a wide lawn spreads across the site to the boundaries, an appropriate setting for a civic building. in the dense urban fabric of Ahmedabad, this garden and recreational space provides a welcome oasis. entry to the institute is from an internal road. the building takes the form of a quadrant in plan. two perpendicular arms pivot around a cylindrical tower housing a staircase. the arc inscribed between the two perpendicular arms faces the main road. An internal courtyard is created between the three wings, serving and connecting them and providing a central focus for informal interaction and various activities. Dramatic shallow curved arches on the courtyard elevations and the cylindrical staircase block pay homage to the Kahn building opposite. the two perpendicular buildings house classrooms. the curved wing has the library and computer labs. On the ground floor, a large space overlooking the grounds can be used for college and other events. external elevations are distinguished by bold cut-out apertures, symmetricality, and alternating striped bands of stone and pale grey exposed concrete emphasising the horizontality of the building and reinforcing its grounding. Vertical fins on the teaching block elevations reduce sunlight and glare. Signature circular windows, in conjunction with large square openings, present a defining image of the institute to the main road.

40 Works 2000-2009

Works 2000-2009 41

42 Works 2000-2009

Designing a large building opposite the IIM-A by Louis Kahn comes with its own challenges. It was important not to impinge on the force of this imposing architectural neighbour, yet also not be daunted by its presence. While I was studying architecture, in 1973 IIM-A was being completed, and several professors worked on it with Kahn. We students were set several projects to study Kahn’s architecture. One involved the double spiral staircase of the IIM-A library building – for me similar to a staircase

designed by Andrea Palladio in the monastery of the Carita, Venice. We had to make a model of the library, showing brick courses with Flemish bond and other technical features. The image and lessons of that stair lingered; and years later when the opportunity came to design a building facing Kahn’s great campus, we paid homage with a reinterpreted idea of the stair in today’s language. The double stair has concave and convex curved soffits; difficult to construct on site. Other elements derive from the Kahn masterpiece: the curved arch on the south-west ground floor; the accentuated tangent of the cylinder; long corridors open at both ends. Classrooms – the main requirement of the college – are placed along the north

0 5 10m

44 Works 2000-2009

10mts.

and east sides, making an L-shaped plan, with the juncture housing a staircase. A limited budget constrained use of stone and required larger areas of exposed concrete. The banding of these materials adds to the aesthetic impact: grey concrete and grey polished Kota stone. The client required a phased construction program. The single-storey building eventually acquired a second storey involving minimal upheaval; and the building would seem complete in both single- and two-storey phases.

Works 2000-2009 45

“As an architect, he has researched

medieval water architecture in western India, and his studies in that neglected field hitherto are producing remarkably insightful information.” —Professor M A Dhaky, American Institute of Indian Studies

ARCHITECTURE

Snehal Shah Architect

Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper 284 pages, 336 colour photographs 138 black & white drawings 10.6 x 10.6” (270 x 270 mm), pb ISBN: 978-81-89995-91-1 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-1-935677-46-8 (Grantha) ₹2500 | $65 | £40 2014 • World rights

Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com

Akshara http://snehalshaharchitect.com/research.html

oTHER TITLES oF InTEREST By MAPIn Learning from Mumbai Practicing Architecture in Urban India Pelle Poiesz, Gert Jan Scholte and Sanne Vanderkaaij Gandhi

ALSo By THE AkSHARA FoUnDATIon Architectural models Works of Architect Balkrishna Doshi Forthcoming Water Structures of Western India UME 23

PRInTED In CHInA

Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com

Akshara http://snehalshaharchitect.com/research.html

oTHER TITLES oF InTEREST By MAPIn Learning from Mumbai Practicing Architecture in Urban India Pelle Poiesz, Gert Jan Scholte and Sanne Vanderkaaij Gandhi

ALSo By THE AkSHARA FoUnDATIon Architectural models Works of Architect Balkrishna Doshi Forthcoming Water Structures of Western India UME 23

PRInTED In CHInA

SneHAl SHAH

Dr George Michell, art and architecture historian

Architect

SneHAl SHAH

MAPin

Architect

Snehal Shah

Articles inside

Ram Krishna Mission temple, Porbandar

Acknowledgements

To build on dusty plains

WorkS 2000-2009 | IndIa 2000-2009

Five lessons

a 1987IndI