Public architecture endures as cherished memory: Former NID executive director at 20th Convocation of CEPT University

Regarding the weight of conservation of legacy by IIM Ahmedabad, Professor Chatterjee said, “In 2008, I was asked to be a member of the building committee of the Indian Institute of Management… But what was really interesting was that, here was a business school which also had the task of being a trustee of one of the world’s best architectural expressions, the Louis Kahn campus. Years of trying to protect those buildings, preserve them and move them into the future while this institution had other needs of education. IIM was not set up to be for conservation of architecture, but was stuck with this task and I don’t know any other example of the investment than IIM made, in trying to preserve protect and take forward the legacy of Louis Kahn.”

On the Gandhi Ashram, he said, “It would all come back to what we have to do at the Gandhi Ashram. It was a sacred space. And here was a plan to develop the Gandhi Ashram as a world-class tourist destination. And the sense of what that would do to the sanctity of the sacred space. In the course of this what have we learnt? In 2017, stealthily at night, bulldozers were brought in and the hall of nations was torn down. A building which was recognised by the museum of modern art as a masterpiece, was levelled. On the other hand, about Gandhiji’s ashram we were getting advice which had nothing to do with Gandhiji’s ethos but was a concept of world-class progress.”

On his own experience at the Gandhi Ashram, Professor Chatterjee said, “It was December 31, 1999. A century is ending and another century is beginning. I wondered where I could spend midnight. There seemed to be just one place for me and so I went to Gandhi ashram, quite certain that something would be happening. But no one was there. At that time the hijacking was taking place and the plane was on its way to Kandahar with hostages. There was tension and somewhere a radio was playing and you could hear the news coming in. I was alone at Hridaykunj, there was nobody else there, even the chowkidaar, just the sense of history, of this place, of the humanity and decency that place represented. And I thought of the time I was in Washington when it was burning. Martin Luther King (Jr) had been assassinated and the city was in flames. An American journalist wrote one day that it was time for Washington to remember the ‘Taj Mahal of humanity’ of love and peace – Mahatma Gandhi.”
Speaking on the convocation proceedings and state of the university, its President, Prof Barjor Mehta said a total of 589 students would receive degrees, including 1 PhD, 392 PG students and 196 UG students, while 45 students received medals for special achievements.