Sangath is the studio of Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi located on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It features a series of sunken vaulted structures sheathed in china mosaic tiles that are sunk into the ground to protect from heat and maintain a low profile. The site has flowing water details and a small grassy amphitheater overlooking the countryside. Sangath combines many of Doshi's architectural themes from previous works, drawing inspiration from rural Indian settlements as well as modern masters like Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn to create a new synthesis harmonizing individual, community and nature.

1. SANGATH: AN EMBLEM OF DOSHI’S PHILOSOPHY

2. SANGATH: ARCHITECT’S STUDIO
• Sangath means “moving together through participation” in
Sanskrit.
• The studio is located on the edge of the countryside to the
west of Ahmedabad – features a series of sunken vaults
sheathed in china mosaic as well as a small grassy terraced
amphitheater and flowing water details.
• The site is a quadrangle looking south over a road towards
open country with camels and tribal villagers going in one
direction diesel trucks and new suburbanites passing in the
other.
• Doshi decided to sink the main studio partly below ground to
protect it from the fierce heat, to maintain a low silhouette
and to accommodate a middle level terrace at an easy
distance and height from the garden.

3. • A lateral section shows how internal levels are interlocked
beneath the vaults to make a 20th century version of a
primeval dwelling.
• A longitudinal section hints at the way that a single,
double and triple height spaces flow into each other.
• Sangath is a complete combination of Doshi's
architectural themes from his previous work including:
• Upon entering the complex, one immediately sees the
silhouette of a vault at an uncertain distance lingering
behind and above an exterior wall.
• A small rectangular opening in this wall gives a glimpse of
the shaded interiors.
• Doshi had began with a rustic address and the theme
intensified by a sequence of stepping ponds reflecting the
building in their still surface.
Vaults on walls, platforms and terraces
Maze like interiors
Ambiguous edges
Dynamic sequences of structure

4. • Doshi’s earliest drawings showed low vaults abutting banks
of earth, with trees all around. Others showed a village
with terraced roofs rising up to a domical structure on top,
an image that was then gradually simplified into vaults
rising from platforms.
• It comes as no surprise that Doshi tried to evoke a small
rural settlement in his studio.
• On a visit to Egypt, Doshi was impressed by the domical
forms in the village of Harania as well as by the vaults of
the crafts centre by Wissa Wassef
• In theme and form Sangath is a descendant of ATIRA
houses.
• The scale is very accommodating and the platforms
encourage people to sit, to chat or to just contemplate a
garden that is full of trees, flowers and birds.
• The turf mounds rhyme with the landscape over the road
and this visual connection serves to underline the rusticity
of Sangath further.

5. • The form and interior organisation of Sangath express the
response to climate directly. The building dramatizes the natural
elements of land, sky, sun and rain.
• Doshi insulated the vaults by:
Jamming clay fuses together and covering it by hand
with concrete.
Embedding a layer of China Mosaic chips to reflect heat
and glare.
Fans in the studios during the hot seasons.
• When the monsoons come crashing in, the rain cascades easily
over the shiny curved surfaces into gutters then into the
troughs.
• On the interiors, the light is baffled by slots and skylights to cast
a restrained glow.
• At night, the moonshine twinkles on the china mosaics and is
reflected in the water.

6. • Sangath articulates Doshi’s private dream of harmony between:
individual ,community and nature.
• Doshi referred to the way in which temples are organised with stages
rising to a plinth, from which the superstructure continues in facetted
forms.
• Some of his sketches compared the curves of the sangath to stupa
forms and even to head-dresses.
• The ambiguous relationship between figure and ground, built form and
external space embodies Doshi’s notion of transitional places for
multiple use.
• Some precise features of Sangath inherited are re-workings from
other areas of the modern tradition:
 The pool from Le Corbusier’s “ear shaped” curves in the Millowners’ building.
 The amphitheatre steps echo both Wright’s Taliesin and certain of Aalto’s ideas.
 The China Mosaics from Gaudi’s Guell park
 The main watersplash inspired by the one at salt laboratories in California by
Louis Kahn.
• Doshi has blended together his sources, whether modern or ancient, Indian or
international, into a new synthesis, an order that fits his own myths and ideas.