In his 2016 article in the Architectural Review, Indian architect and writer Gautam Bhatia reflected on the works of BV Doshi, AD Raje and Bimal Patel, emphasising how institutional architecture functions as “an independent self-contained entity [which] expresses a microcosm of the country’s social conditions – a place within a place." The post-colonial architecture that forms the crux of his argument, adopts a functional approach, aiming not only to offer practical design solutions but also to create spaces that engage with their social, cultural and contextual surroundings, vis-à-vis the long-standing dominance of formulaic modernism in India’s utilitarian institutional architecture. Built primarily by government agencies, municipal bodies and Public Works Departments in Indian cities, these buildings were often bulky, inefficient and impersonal, characterised by their bureaucratic nature manifested in architecture and outwardly appearance.

The Girl’s College & Hostel for Model Education Trust in Surat, Gujarat, lies at the intersection of this aforementioned utilitarianism and functionalism. Akin to the heroes of Bhatia’s article, NEOGENESIS+STUDI0261, the Surat-based multi-disciplinary practice borrows from Louis Kahn’s architectural legacy, to present an educational architecture designed with the underlying belief that institutions should assert their identity and evolve into landmarks.

The master plan for the site develops around a central garden, enveloped by three blocks (meant to be executed in phases). The introverted school design, composed of rigid squares and a curved staircase block, constitutes a nursing college for girls, offering courses ranging from General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) to Master of Science in Nursing.

Located near an industrial zone, the inward-facing layout further prioritises the safety of its female students to ensure a secure and conducive learning environment. The staff areas and curved staircase block positioned along the periphery near the road are separated from the repetitive geometry of the classrooms and labs via an unyielding, linear passage. On the east, the courtyard facing the elevation of the building is characterised by a structural frame of exposed concrete that is reminiscent of Doshi’s concrete skin at the Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad, while the volume of the passage it screens, as well as the circulation core, is evocative of Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management.

Split levels and terraces punctuate the spatial hierarchy – defined by double height volumes and regulated, symmetric massing – enabling dynamic floor-to-floor connections and enhancing the architectural aesthetic by introducing variability in the internal elevations. However, the engagement with historicity and socio-cultural context here seems somewhat confined to the familiar material palette of exposed brick and concrete, often definitive of a textbook Indian architecture laden with the oft heavy-handed virtuosity of post-coloniality. While the familiarity echoes the post-colonial modernism of Doshi, Raje and Patel as Bhatia amiably remarked, along with Kahn’s Brutalist architecture alluding to an Indian proto-subtropical context, it can be seen to lack the spatial sequencing and irregular forms that aim to evoke an Indian identity in these precedents, instead settling for an 'Indian-ness' that is more memory and reverence than legacy-building.

The courtyard, which ties the different sections of the institute together, is simultaneously secure and public, facilitating serendipitous interactions for teaching and learning, albeit with a geometry that is as unyielding but punctuated as its form. The courtyard and its perceived post-coloniality as an elemental intervention at the Girl’s College imprints more as a gesture than through formal geometry. At times, it unites to define the building’s various functions, serves as an entrance court, becomes a formal institutional(ised) space or transforms into a landscaped informal court.

Bhatia further observes in his text that "in a developing country, institutes become the generic symbols of that development – suggesting an idea that is first realised in the selected experimental ground of a campus, before being unleashed on the larger world outside.” Today, as India continues to struggle with a hybrid global identity that straddles contemporaneity with tradition, the role of institutional architecture as an experimental ground and as an archetype of the country’s social condition remains significant in shaping the built environment of a truly Global India. The educational design at the Girl’s College & Hostel for the Model Education Trust evokes a sense of nostalgic direction for an Indian architecture that is rooted in its immediate post-colonial context in the city, especially through its spatial understanding of internal volumes and a quintessential material palette that mirrors an innate understanding of local conditions. However, in contrast, its rather rigid form—a result of being staged around strict symmetry—renders the design emblematic in intent but bureaucratic and utilitarian in execution.

Project Details

Name: Girl’s College & Hostel for the Model Education Trust
Location: Surat, Gujarat
Typology: Institutional
Client: Model Education Trust
Architect: NEOGENESIS+STUDI0261
Design: Team Chinmay Laiwala , Jigar Asarawala, Tarika Asarawala
Area: 10734 sqm