Riyaz Tayyibji, principal architect and partner at Anthill Design, Ahmedabad, delivered the 52nd Gandhi Memorial Lecture (GML) at the historic auditorium of the Raman Research Institute (RRI) today.

Delivered at RRI by a person of high eminence, typically on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, or on some occasions, on the day of his martyrdom, the lectures have become a highlight event in the Institute’s calendar. The lecture is jointly organised by RRI and the RRI Trust.

Professor Tarun Souradeep, Director, RRI, welcomed the guests to the lecture. Professor Jyotsna Dhawan, Chair, RRI Trust, welcomed Tayyibji on behalf of the RRI trust and introduced him to the audience.

In his address titled “What is modern about Gandhi's Buildings? Reconsidering Modern Architecture in India”, Tayyibji, who is also a visiting tutor at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, said that though most of us are aware of the philosophical and political ideas of Gandhi, very few know of how they affected the built environment around him.

He talked about a project that he was associated with under the Ministry of Culture, the “Gandhi Heritage Sites mission”, that dealt with documenting built heritage that Gandhi was associated with.

Under this project, the team that involved him as the Project Coordinator documented around 20 sites, and the 10-year project culminated with the book “Gandhi’s Places: An Architectural Documentation”.

He went on to talk about his experiences documenting the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, and the Sevagram Ashram in Wardha. “It would be difficult to convince you that this is one of the most modern buildings of the time because the image of the building is vernacular,” Tayyibji said about the Sevagram Ashram.

Tayyibji talked about a fascinating experience he had while documenting the Magan Sangrahalaya in Wardha, where he said Gandhi arguably organised the “first international design competition” to develop portable working charkhas in 1919.

The competition demanded a charkha that was more performative than aesthetic, and though the reward was a handsome sum of Rs 5000, a big amount for the time, due to the lacklustre response, he refloated the competition in 1929 with a reward of a whopping sum of Rs 1 lakh.

He went on to say that Gandhi was someone who used machines in the way a user understands it, rather than a producer. The lecture turned out to be a huge insight into how Gandhi’s buildings gave an insight into the man and his exploration of materiality.

The talk was also live-streamed on RRI’s official YouTube channel.

 

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