Monument –ATMA House, Ahmedabad
Built by – Le Corbusier
Built in – 1954

“Mill Owners’ Association Building, also known as Ahmedabad Textile Mill Owners’ Association House (ATMA House), is one of the first modern buildings in Ahmedabad designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. The ATMA House was commissioned as the association’s new headquarters by Surottam Hutheesing, the then president of AMOA. The building was completed in 1954.

Le Corbusier’s points of reference for building in Ahmedabad were the climate and culture. Climate, with regard to extremities of sun, and culture in terms of paradoxes, of people with futuristic outlooks yet rooted in tradition.

The triple-height entrance hall has a grand approach through the ceremonial ramp. The arrival is on the first floor while the ground floor houses the workspaces of the clerks, which is a separate single-story canteen at the rear end. The third floor houses a top-lit auditorium with a roof canopy and a curved enclosing wall.

The east and west facades are in the form of sun breakers, one of Corbusier’s many inventions which provide visual connectivity and wind flow while avoiding the harsh sunlight. The sun breakers act as free facades made of rough shuttered concrete, while the north and south sides built in rough brickwork are almost unbroken.

On the second floor of the Mill Owners’ Building, the lobby is treated as “”an open space defined by harsh, angular forms and the auditorium as an enclosed space delineated by soft, curvilinear forms, two contradictory elements that both need the other to exist.”

Photo Courtesy – www.archdaily.com