How to Build with Time? Learning from Bimanagar, Its Inhabitants and B.V. Doshi

¿Cómo construir con el tiempo? Aprendiendo de Bimanagar, sus habitantes y B.V. Doshi.

The book is a monograph about the housing estate of Bimanagar in Ahmedabad (India). The project was designed by renowned architect B. V. Doshi in the 1970s and built in the late 1980s with the intention of creating a cohesive community, integrating a diverse population and fostering a sense of belonging through its own… transformation and growth over time. Previously available documentation is limited and the existing literature focuses on the architect’s project without covering residents’ transformations in detail. The book situates the project in its political, regulatory, and cultural context as well as within the broader work of B. V. Doshi. It traces the project’s design and construction history and presents its current state after more than thirty years since its initial occupation. The aim is to understand how this process has taken place, uncover its drivers and barriers, and give insights into the interplay between architecture’s social, spatial, and temporal dimensions. The study brings together different perspectives and methodologies from a range of scholars who analyse a diverse set of documentation, including photographic surveys, archival documentation, a statistical survey, semi-structured interviews, diagrams, and architectural drawings. Ultimately, the book’s findings shed light into the qualities and processes that have allowed Bimanagar to retain its overall identity while undergoing significant and decentralised change. It also poses questions about the limits and threats to this dynamic and how architecture preservation should operate in such cases. read more