L D Institute of Indology Case Study: Plan, Section and Climate (B V Doshi)

The L D Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad is a research library and manuscript store designed by B V Doshi and completed in 1962, one of his first public buildings after his years with Le Corbusier. Its idea is a section: a library sunk half into the ground, a main level raised half a storey above it, and an upper floor of teaching rooms shaded by deep verandas and concrete overhangs, all so that old manuscripts could be kept without air conditioning. Below: what is documented, and what is not.

The brief: manuscripts that could not be air-conditioned

The Institute's own history says it was founded in 1956 by "two visionaries": Muni Shri Punyavijayji, who gave over 10,000 rare manuscripts, many of them illustrated, and over 7,000 rare books, and Sheth Kasturbhai Lalbhai. Work began at the L D Vada, a family residence in the walled city. To give the collection "a special building", Kasturbhai and his family made a large donation. Today the Institute's homepage lists nearly 75,000 manuscripts and more than 60,000 books.

The historian William J R Curtis, in Balkrishna Doshi: An Architecture for India (Rizzoli, 1988; text reproduced by Hidden Architecture), tells it from the donor's side: in the mid-1950s the monk approached Kasturbhai Lalbhai about a collection of ancient manuscripts, on condition that it be properly stored and preserved, and the idea grew into a research institute with a museum. Doshi was invited to submit a design.

Two lines in Curtis set the whole brief:

• Tradition: ancient texts were usually kept in the basements of temples.
• The constraint: the new building could not be air-conditioned, because, as Curtis puts it, "the manuscripts would soon have been destroyed".

In the project text released with his 2018 Pritzker Prize (reproduced by Architect magazine), Doshi says he considered lighting, temperature and humidity to protect what the building holds. The brief was a climate problem as much as a programme.

Full form: L D stands for Lalbhai Dalpatbhai, the name the Institute uses for itself.

Site and context: Ahmedabad in the late 1950s

The plot is in Navrangpura, in the university area west of the Sabarmati. Curtis gives it as 3.7 hectares near Gujarat University, donated by the Ahmedabad Education Society. The Institute describes a green campus; the L D Museum and the N C Mehta wing, both by Doshi, now stand beside the 1962 building.

The building belongs to a short, intense period in the city. Per the Pritzker Prize biography, Doshi worked for Le Corbusier in Paris, returned to India in 1954 to oversee Le Corbusier's projects in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, founded his own practice, Vastushilpa, in 1956, and from 1962 worked with Louis Kahn as associate on the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Le Corbusier's Mill Owners' Association building dates from 1951 to 1956 by the Ahmedabad Textile Mills' Association's own account. So the Institute of Indology was designed while Le Corbusier's Ahmedabad buildings were going up and finished just as Kahn's campus began.

The Institute's history adds a link of its own: the N C Mehta Collection of Indian miniature paintings opened to the public on 9 May 1963 at Sanskar Kendra, "designed by Le Corbusier", and stayed there until 1990. In 1993 it moved to a new wing on the L D campus designed by Doshi.

Design concept: the upashraya and the concrete sunshade

Doshi went to local precedent first. In the Pritzker project text he says he studied a Jain upashraya, a residence for monks, and met several Jain saints in the city to understand how such buildings were traditionally made. Dezeen (James Parkes, 24 January 2023) sums up the result as a podium and a veranda that reference traditional Indian architecture and the upashraya.

Curtis describes three sources folded into one building:

1. The upashraya: the old Jain upashraya Doshi had seen in Ahmedabad also stood on a plinth and had a cantilevered balcony under a shaded roof.
2. Le Corbusier: at the Institute, that idea was "hybridised" with Le Corbusier's principle of the reinforced concrete sunshade.
3. Gujarati building: the deep cornices, cantilevers and rows of pillars of buildings such as the old mosques of Ahmedabad and the palace complex at Sarkhej.

Doshi's own summary, in the Pritzker text, is that "All the elements one finds in Indian buildings are present" here: two storeys, a high plinth and a full-length veranda. The same text says the design was partly inspired by Kenzo Tange's Kurashiki Town Hall in Japan.

L D Institute of Indology plan: what is documented

Students searching for the plan should know how thin the public record is. Curtis and Doshi's notes describe the building by levels, not room by room:

• Library: semi-underground, below the main level.
• Main level: half a storey above the ground, entered by a raised bridge over a moat.
• Upper floor: teaching rooms, cantilevered over the walkways, with a deep veranda.

We found no reliable published text that lists the rooms of each floor, the grid or the overall dimensions, so MOA has not drawn a plan: a plan built on guesses would mislead a jury. For the real drawings, Curtis's monograph (Rizzoli, 1988) is the standard printed source, and ArchEyes shows a floor plan, section and elevations credited to B V Doshi. For original drawings, ask the Vastushilpa Foundation, which runs the Balkrishna Doshi Archives.

One caution: some recent online write-ups describe the building as lifted on pilotis with the manuscript store on an upper floor. That does not match Curtis or Doshi's notes, which put the library half below ground, and we have followed them. If you are documenting it yourself, our field checklist for an architecture case study covers measuring and photographing a building like this.

L D Institute of Indology section: raised and lowered floors

The section is where the building answers the brief. From Curtis's description:

• Down: the library is placed semi-underground, the modern version of the temple basement. (Our reading: earth around a room evens out the swings of temperature between day and night.)
• Indirect light: daylight enters through angled windows, reflected off a pool of water that also served as insulation. No direct sun reaches the manuscripts.
• Up: the main level sits half a storey above the ground, reached by a raised bridge over the moat, so the entrance is a crossing rather than a door in a wall.
• Over: the upper floor cantilevers out over the walkways and carries a deep veranda, so the floor below and the walkways stay in shade.

The diagram is MOA's schematic of that principle, not a copy of Doshi's section. The sources describe the pool, moat and angled windows but do not dimension them, so their positions are indicative.

The "high plinth" Doshi mentions and the half-buried library are two sides of one decision: lifting the main floor half a storey makes room for a library that is only half sunk, which, in our reading, is easier to light and ventilate than a full basement.

Materials and construction

Curtis calls the Institute an attempt to define an architecture for the Indian climate that relies on "a contemporary structural instrument", the concrete frame, together with schemes of order with an ancient pedigree in the Ahmedabad region. The frame is what makes the cantilevered upper floor and the deep overhangs possible.

What a visitor sees is exposed concrete: in the 2015 photograph below, the columns and soffit show the marks of timber formwork. ArchEyes lists the materials as brick, concrete and local stone, and credits Stup Consultants as engineers; we could not confirm either from the Institute, Curtis or Doshi's office, so treat them as unverified. No source we opened gives the concrete specification, the waterproofing of the sunken library or the build cost.

For how these choices compare with what is used in Gujarat today, see our guide to building materials in Ahmedabad and Gujarat.

Light, climate and services

The building's climate strategy is almost entirely passive, and every part of it is in the section:

• Thermal mass and earth: the half-buried library.
• Shade: the cantilever, the full-length veranda and the concrete sunshades keep sun off the walls and glass.
• Controlled light: reflected, indirect daylight in the library, in line with Doshi's note that lighting, temperature and humidity all had to suit the manuscripts.
• Water: the pool, which Curtis says served as insulation as well as a light reflector.

We found no published measurements of temperature or humidity inside the library, and no dated account of whether mechanical cooling or dehumidifiers were added later. The Institute's history page speaks of "scientific conservation" and "safe storage" of its collection without describing the equipment. Students should not claim the building still runs without any services unless they have checked on site.

The Pritzker jury citation for Doshi names the same toolkit across his career: patios, courtyards and covered walkways that "protect from the sun, catch the breezes". Our guide to roofing materials by climate covers the roof side of this for houses.

Reception: what has been said about it

• Curtis (1988) placed it at the start of Doshi's search for a regional modern architecture: a concrete frame married to the plinth, veranda and cornice of Gujarati building.
• The Pritzker Prize (2018) listed it among Doshi's cultural buildings, with Tagore Memorial Hall (1967) and Premabhai Hall (1976), and published a photograph of Doshi outside it.
• Dezeen (2023) included it in ten key projects after Doshi's death and called it "one of Doshi's first public projects after working for Le Corbusier".
• The client came back to Doshi for the museum (1984) and the N C Mehta wing (1993).

On problems, we found no dated, named source on leaks, damp in the sunken library, structural repairs or proposals to alter the 1962 building. A 2012 photograph on Wikimedia Commons shows weathered concrete on the main front, which is common for exposed concrete of the period; that is all we can say without a condition survey.

What designers in India can take from it today

Our reading, for anyone designing in a hot, dry Indian city:

1. Start the climate design in section, not in services. Doshi had a hard constraint (no air conditioning) and solved it by moving floors up and down relative to the ground. On a small library, archive or school, try sinking the most sensitive room half a level before you size a chiller.
2. Light sensitive rooms with reflected light. A window that looks at water, a light-coloured court or a wall, rather than at the sky, gives even light without sun.
3. Let the overhang do two jobs. A cantilevered upper floor shades the walkway below and gives the floor above a deep veranda.
4. Study a local type before borrowing a modern one. Doshi visited an upashraya and talked to its users before drawing. For a thesis, pair your modern precedent with a local building type that solved the same problem; our list of B.Arch thesis topics by typology has options where this approach fits.

Visiting the L D Institute of Indology

The building is a working research institute; the part open to the public is the L D Museum on the same campus. Per the Plan Your Visit page, the museum is open every day except Mondays and public holidays, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is about 7 km from Ahmedabad railway station and 12 km from the airport, with a BRTS stop outside the gates. Big bags, water bottles and packages are not allowed inside; there is a baggage counter. Schools and colleges are asked to tell the museum the date and time of a group visit in advance by mail or phone.

For access to the Institute building or its library for study, contact the Institute through its contact page. Our case studies of Sangath and IIM Ahmedabad cover two more buildings you can see on the same trip.

Looking for an architect who designs for climate first? Find an architect on MOA.

FAQ

Who designed the L D Institute of Indology?

B V Doshi (Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi), through his practice Vastushilpa, founded in 1956. He later designed the L D Museum next door (1984) and the N C Mehta Collection wing (1993).

When was the L D Institute of Indology built?

Most sources give 1962 for completion, and MIT Libraries' record gives 1957 to 1962 for design and construction. Hidden Architecture lists 1959. The Institute itself was founded in 1956 and started work in the L D Vada in the walled city.

What is the full form of L D Institute of Indology?

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology. It was founded by Muni Shri Punyavijayji Maharaj and Sheth Kasturbhai Lalbhai.

Where is the L D Institute of Indology situated?

In Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, near Gujarat University, about 7 km from the railway station.

Why does the L D Institute of Indology have a semi-underground library?

Because the manuscripts could not be kept in an air-conditioned building. Doshi sank the library half into the ground, as temples kept texts in basements, and lit it with indirect light reflected off a pool of water.

Sources

• Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology: About us, updated 28 Sep 2022 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology: LDII homepage (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology: Plan Your Visit (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Hidden Architecture: Institute of Indology, text from William J R Curtis, Balkrishna Doshi: An Architecture for India, Rizzoli, 1988 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Architect magazine: Institute of Indology, project text by Balkrishna Doshi, 7 Mar 2018 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• The Pritzker Architecture Prize: Balkrishna Doshi, 2018 Laureate (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• The Pritzker Architecture Prize: Biography: Balkrishna Doshi (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Dezeen, James Parkes: Ten key projects by the late architect Balkrishna Doshi, 24 Jan 2023 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• MIT Libraries, Dome: Institute of Indology, image record, creation date 1957 to 1962 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• ArchEyes: The Institute of Indology by B V Doshi, 9 Sep 2024, for the drawings and the unverified area figure (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Ahmedabad Textile Mills' Association: About (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
• Vastushilpa Foundation: Balkrishna Doshi Archives (accessed 3 Nov 2026)