CAMPUS WITHOUT WALLS LEARNING WITHOUT BOUNDARIES The founders of the School of Architecture had a most daring and unusual perception of their task. They em- phasized learning rather than teaching, and saw the place of learning as one where there were no boundar- ies, no hierarchies and a complete atmosphere of free and unhampered inquiry. Naturally, they thought of a campus that demonstrated and facilitated that outlook. This exhibition documents a dual movement : a search for a model of education, and the simultaneous search for an architecture appropriate fo the idea of learning. Itis rare that there is such a close relation between programmatic development and architectural evolution. CEPT is fortunate to have been such a process the same minds think of the quality of an institution and its archi- tectural form. In the 50 years between 1962 and 2012, the School of Architecture grew into CEPT University, and its founders, many faculty members and students played an active role in designing and making the campus. All this was done under the direction of Balkrishna V. Doshi, founding member first Director, Dean Emeritus as well as Architect of the Campus Planning, under the banner of his architectural practice known at various times ‘@8 Vastu Shilpa, Stein Doshi Bhalla Architects and Sangath. MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS"Education combines the abstract and the real. It must challenge established patterns, seek out validity in tradition, and com- bine these with possibilities of today.The ultimate aim of educa- tion is the training of men to deal challengingly with problems...in process it is a dynamic analysis of culture, values, knowledge, and methodol- ogy. It must be selective deal- ing with principle, essence and direction as contrasted to merely accumulated, unrelated facts.” Curriculum Statement 1963 pore fo Hak ta sities orto the Bay app tienes Srp MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS 2THE BEGINNING YEARS In 1962, the School of Architecture Ahmedabad was founded under the auspices of Ahmedabad Education Society. The founders of the school were a group of young professionals, rooted in the Indian context yet con- nected to the global currents, Daring, unconventional and iconoclastic in their educational vision, they formu- lated a new educational paradigm unhompered by conventional ideas of imparting training for a known pro- fessional outcome. This was the context of the architecture which was to evolve here. Space was allocated fo the School within the building of LD College of Arts. As student numbers grew, the Bad- minton Hall of the Ahmedabad Education Society was allocated to the School, and classes took place inside ‘and outsice the building. The tradition of thinking of indoor as well as outdoor space as usable for teaching spaces reflects the underty- ing philosophy of a learning environment where nothing was boxed in into hard categories, an environment ‘open both in spirit, use as well as physical form. MAKINGMAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS sS‘MAKING THE <+y_) CREATIVE J YF, CAMPUS 6MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS uwi iA A A AM WAT MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE asMAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS 10THE PROGRAMME OF OPEN-ENDED LEARNING A CAMPUS OF MANY INTERLINKED DISCIPLINES. From the earliest time, the idea of the interconnectedness of architecture, design, planning, construction technologies was held fo be important. Equally, the aris and the social and natural sciences were seen to be necessatty to all who worked in the field of environment and human habitat, This is reflected in the fist curriculum and brought to concrete proposals in the proposal for the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology. MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS ‘CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND TECHNOLMAKING THE PARALLEL INVESTIGATIONS IN ARCHITECTURE IN DOSHI’S WORK OF THE PERIOD. The Schoo! building and its further extensions are but one of this proffic architect's ‘works in the 1960'¢nd 70's, The architectural maginaticn and the educational en CREATIVE cosenent went hond inher, anc must have had effects in both areas, CAMPUS nsMAKING THE Je CREATIVE > Thoughts & development CADIPUS ‘of The School of Planning 4duaaeaecaeesesenes MAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS isMAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS >Sa iS 1 The need to view life and education from a holistic perspective has ali along guided development of the campus with the eshtablishment of sevral institutions. These institutions with | their focus on visual and performing arts have added multiple dimensions to all programes offered 7 by these institutions and interactions with the MAKING visiting artists has allowed students of all the THE programes on the campus to appreciate other CREATIVE disciplines. CAMPUS -Paths Uncharted, Balkrishna Doshi y } | Imagining CEPT as a Cultural HubMAKING THE CREATIVE ae CAMPUS KANORIA CENTER FOR ARTS 2zMAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS _ 2 HUSSAIN-DOSHI GUFA DBUNIVERSITY AS A MICROCOSM OF THE CITY A COMMUNITY OF LEARNING. CEPT has now become a vital part of the city, located not at the edge but in the thick of urban life. Greatly in demand, and committed to fuifling its societal role, the campus needs to accommodate a large variety of programmes and activities. It is subject fo the same pressures of space as the rest of sociely. How to increase facilities and space while still maintaining the ease of interaction, the intimacy of scale, the in- formality of use? This is the question that the projected future buildings will have to grapple with. Doshi's proposals for the new buildings show an imaginative leap into the new conditions while holding stead- fastly to the original vision of aplace of learning. Y . MAKINGMAKING THE CREATIVE CAMPUS 26 DOSHI'S PROPOSALS FOR NEW EXTENSIONS ON THE CEPT CAMPUS