A day in Ahmedabad – tour the Indian city’s captivating architecture

Ahmedabad is indifferent to the camera. It does not curate itself for the visitor; it simply functions. To call it an architectural haven in India is true, but insufficient. It does not offer the pristine, frozen modernist architecture of a textbook but something far more honest. Like many places in India, it is a city of wild juxtaposition.

Tour Ahmedabad architecture with us

In Ahmedabad, the intricate stone lattice of a 15th-century mosque engages in a quiet, unselfconscious dialogue with the raw concrete of Le Corbusier. The city's density and diversity of design are no accident; they are the result of a merchant class that possessed a rare intellectual appetite, inviting visionaries like Louis Kahn, Balkrishna V Doshi, and Charles Correa to build institutions. The city has since metabolised them all. Buildings here are lived-in, weathered, and constantly renegotiated by the people who use them.

The modernist anchors

Sangath (aka Balkrishna V Doshi’s office)

Built in 1981, Sangath has been a nurturing place for many of India’s great architects. Doshi buried the building to escape the heat, creating a series of vaulted, China-mosaic roofs. Inside, the light is diffused and cavernous. The gardens and a very interesting path lead visitors to the main building. Each space, each element has a story related to Doshi, or the artisans who built it. It feels less like a workspace and more like a pause in the city’s chaos, which grew over time. It now houses Vastu Shilpa Sangath, Vastu Shilpa Foundation, and Studio Sangath.

Access: There is a dedicated ticketing window for architects and students willing to visit the campus. Bring identification.

IIM Ahmedabad

Built in 1969-74, Louis Kahn’s brick monolith is ageing with dignity, as well as controversy over its conservation. The famous circular arches are impressive, but the real architecture is in the shadows and the silence. Kahn was challenging the traditional models of education and felt that classrooms were just the beginning of learning and not the heart of academic institutions. This led him to design the campus, which focused on learning inside, as well as outside.

Access: Visitors require prior permission to visit the campus.

ATMA House (Mill Owners’ Association Building)

This is Le Corbusier’s Promenade Architecturale facing the Sabarmati River. Built in 1954, the Mill Owners' Association Building was designed as a machine for viewing a river that has since been tamed and concreted over. It was designed at a time when Ahmedabad had a thriving textile industry. The deep brise-soleil cuts the harsh midday sun into manageable, cool slices. ATMA house is also the place to host exhibitions, design events, etc, throughout the year.

Sardar Patel Stadium

A concrete icon of post-independence India, this 1966 structure defines the collaboration between Charles Correa and engineer Mahendra Raj. It is currently in a fragile state and facing an uncertain future. It is essential to see it, even from the perimeter, as a reminder that even the most innovative concrete is not immortal.

The campus ecosystem

CEPT University & Library

This is the soul of Ahmedabad’s design community. Its architect, Balkrishna Doshi, envisioned it as a campus without walls, and it remains true to that ethos. I always find myself wandering into the studios or the new Lilavati Lalbhai Library by RMA Architects. The spaces are informal, porous, and constantly buzzing with life and thought. The campus and the library often host exhibitions of students’ work and are worth visiting.

Amdavad ni Gufa

Next door to CEPT lies this ferro-cement collaboration between Pritzker-winning Doshi and one of the most famous Indian artists, MF Husain. It defies standard geometry. Constructed using wire-frame armatures and local labour, its snake-like forms create an underground cavern lit by snout-like light cannons. It is also a beloved public space; inside, you are likely to find design students studying the space at any time. Last time I went there, I met an old flute player who visits every day with his grandson. While he plays the flute, his grandson plays tag among the columns.

Kanoria Centre for Arts

A brick-walled gateway to the arts, right on the campus edge. It functions almost like a decompression zone between the institutional open spaces and the main road. Go for the gallery, to see the artists in their element; stay for the quiet courtyards and nice chai.

Centre for Environment Education (CEE)

Designed by architect Neelkanth Chhaya, the campus is an inspiration in building around nature, preserving the landscape. The structures manoeuvre through a heavily forested, contoured site. You descend through the canopy into labyrinthine spaces that feel entirely hidden from the city. Last time I visited, I chanced upon the on-site Aarambh Café. It's a must-visit place serving food made of local millets. Stop there for a pause from the urban grid and good coffee. If you want to have a nice local lunch, visit Kamla - right across CEE’s campus. Kamla is Ngo SEWA’s social enterprise centred on nutritious food.

The social conscience

Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya

A pilgrimage site for architects, this was Indian master architect Charles Correa’s breakout project in 1963. The museum, housed in the campus where Mahatma Gandhi lived (Sabarmati Ashram), reimagines the vernacular through a modernist lens, utilising a modular 6m concrete grid and pyramidal roofs to house Gandhi’s letters and photographs. The design is deliberately porous; open courtyards and breezeways ensure the building breathes, blurring the lines between the built environment and the surrounding landscape. It is modest, evolving, and meditative, a perfect spatial echo of the Mahatma’s life.

Conflictorium

This 'Museum of Conflict' (aimed at addressing issues of conflict through art) is an adaptive reuse project located in the Gool Lodge in the old city. The exhibition design serves as a vessel for uncomfortable conversations. Envisioned and designed by Interdisciplinary practitioner Avni Sethi, the space is tight, intimate, and forces confrontation with the city’s complex social history.

Arthshila

Arthshila is an important addition to the city's cultural landscape; it was designed by Bandook Smith Studio. Interestingly, it's an adaptive reuse of a house that was also designed by the same studio. Arthshila is a dedicated arts centre that acts as a public living room for creatives. With an excellent design/architecture library and exhibition spaces, it’s a polished but welcoming venue for design dialogue.

Sarkhej Roza

Le Corbusier called it the Acropolis of Ahmedabad, but it feels more grounded than that. A complex of mosques and tombs that merges Islamic geometry with Hindu craftsmanship. It is less about the object and more about the void of the courtyards, the tank, and the deep shadows of the colonnades.

Gun House

Gun House is an interesting case study of how buildings live their lives. It is another Correa project that has been entirely swallowed up by the city. Originally built for the Rifle Association, it is now a collision of a gym, a garment workshop, and retail shops. The diagrid structure remains, but the infill is pure Ahmedabad chaos. It is the perfect example of how architecture survives by adapting.

Birdhouses (Chabutas)

You will see these dotted throughout the city. They are ornate, elevated towers built for feeding and sheltering birds. In a city obsessed with land value, these are stubborn, beautiful monuments to interspecies co-living.

Ravivari (Sunday Market)

Ravivari (Sunday Market) is a temporary, shifting city of tarpaulin that erupts every Sunday on the riverfront, with sellers selling everything second-hand, from used furniture and clothes to cameras. Dating back to the 15th century, Ravivari migrated from the Old City to the Sabarmati banks in 1954, where it remains a goldmine for the design-obsessed. It is the go-to spot for sourcing second-hand curiosities. The sellers here are culturally attuned, too; don’t be surprised if they recognise your architectural/designer gaze and ask if you belong to the local design fraternity of CEPT or NID.

Fuel & pause

Lucky Restaurant

The ultimate exercise in making do. The owner chose not to move the graves on the site (the venue is located within a burial ground), so he built the restaurant around them. You sip chai and eat bun maska while sitting next to a painted green grave. An MF Husain painting hangs casually on the wall. Hussain was a frequent visitor to Lucky.

Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum

Rahul Mehrotra’s restoration of this 1905 estate is almost invisible from the main road. A colonial mansion pairs with a new, minimal gallery, both dissolving into the lush vegetation. Inside, the collection is vast and eclectic, spanning from Persian and Mughal miniatures to Tibetan Thangkas and the modernism of the Bengal School. Look for the art deco furniture when you visit. Sharing the estate’s Claude Batley wing is the Arvind Indigo Museum. This is the world’s first institution dedicated to the celebration of a single colour. It features the work of various contemporary artists working with indigo and is housed in the many galleries. It is an exploration of 'blue' in all its material possibilities.

Access to Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum is limited to four guided tours daily (closed Mondays). Advance booking via email is essential. Indigo Museum is Open daily 10 am – 5 pm (closed Mondays). Located at the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum complex.