Villa Shodhan

Ahmedabad, Gujerat, India

Header Image of Villa Shodhan: John Gollings ©

1951-56

Modernist Villa

Architect Corbusier with Balkrishna.V.Doshi

Corbusier saw this project as a next phase in the development of Villa Savoye. It began life as one of three projects which Corbusier accepted to build homes for private families whilst he was working in India on national projects in Chandigarh. This was to be the home of the Secretary of the Mill Owners Association, Mr Hutheesing. The plans were then sold forward to textiles manufacturer, Shyamubhai Shodhan, who used the design for another location in a project supervised by Le Corbusier’s team in India.

Corbusier and Doshi at Villa Shodhan

Asked about the house Corbusier said,

‘What have I given to Shodhan? ….I have given him: shade in the summer, sun in the winter, air circulation and cool in the seasons…..He leaves his house on the first terrace, in the shade, sheltered. In constantly moving air. He climbs to the roof, he sleeps there. Everywhere he or his guests are sheltered, captivated and enchanted.’

The Corbusier Guide Deborah Gans ISBN: 9781568985398

Villa Shodhan South-West Facade 1958 Image Lucien Hervé Public Domain

According to Oeuvre Complète the eight-volume opus covering his whole career,

‘The raw concrete of the façades, showing the imprint of the wooden formwork, is purposely left unfinished; the forms are made from what wood was available. A smooth finish appears only under the roof parasol and on the interior ceilings-these forms are therefore of sheet-metal, and the resulting surface will receive intense colour magnifying the raw concrete’.

Extract from Foundation Corbusier: Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complète, volume 6, 1952-1957