Xuyao Zhou

The post-independence city of modernity is one of six versions of Ahmedabad city. Indian modernity holds something of the modernism of Europe but has developed a very particular calibration suited to its situation and further developed not only by its own architects but also by those who commission architects.  The Mill Owners’ Association building, City Museum, and Indian Institute of Management evidence a particular moment in this pursuit of modernity in Ahmedabad. This thesis argues that they provide an example for further advancing the development of Ahmedabad’s modernity and the Sabarmati Riverfront Project. 

Seasonal rainfall has a big impact on the city. The new Sabarmati Riverfront project tries to regulate these temporal shifts.  Le Corbusier's Mill Owners’ Association building was originally located on the bank of the Sabarmati River, where the textile industry of Ahmedabad flourished in the 1950s, creating a progressive architectural intervention yet harmonious natural scene with the building and textile workers working with the flux of the river, the textiles drying and the animals drinking on the riverbank.

With the development of the new Riverfront city, old connections have been severed.  Furthermore, there are still large amounts of industrial water discharged into the Sabarmati river, straining the new infrastructure. This speculative design project is located next to the old Mill Owner’s Association and, by following its progressive character, takes on environmental issues whilst trying to reconnect the city to a more performative Sabarmati river.