Gandhi Memorial Museum at Sabarmati Ashram

This memorial museum is located in the ashram where the Mahatma lived from 1917 to 1930. Housing his books, letters and photographs, this modest and human-scaled memorial uses brick piers, stone floors and tiled roofs to find a contemporary expression for the spirit of swadeshi. The commission was the architect's first important work in private practice. In order to reflect the simplicity of Gandhi's life and the incremental nature of a living institution the architect used modular units 6 metres x 6 metres of reinforced cement concrete connecting spaces, both open and covered, allowing for eventual expansion. This building represents a skillful synthesis of Western Rationalism and Modernism with the simplicity and austerity that characterises the old ashram building.