L D INSTITUTE, AHMEDABAD : ASSEMBLAGE OF BUILDING CRAFTS

The purpose of the studio was to study a building through the activity of drawing it at a scale of 1:5, and developing an original research idea. The final task was to make a research proposal for grant application. 
My project proposes an exhibition, which investigates B V Doshi’s L D Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad as a building that is an assemblage of its building crafts, and aims to expand the existing discourse about the building that focus on narratives of conceptual design and philosophy of the architect.
Within the field of architectural history, this project deals with the process of studying a constructed building as an assemblage of different building crafts. The specific site it focuses on is the L D Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad, designed by B V Doshi and constructed between 1957 and 1962. The specific aspects considered for analysis are the different processes or techniques of making that simultaneously add to the visual language of the building. These are analysed in terms of their materials, construction process and outward appearance. The project contrasts the methodology of studying a building as an architect’s ingenuity, versus the methodology of studying the building as a collaborative output of multiple makers. What emerges from the exhibition is a greater understanding of architectural production as a pursuit of multiple collaborators and looks at Doshi’s projects through a previously unexplored lens.