It is easy to miss the Reading Centre, even though it is prominently sited on one of the main access roads to Gujarat University. The building is exaggeratedly low. It appears to hover above the ground uncompromisingly silent and solid. From the street, not a single opening decorates the massive concrete block of its exterior. It is a brutalist building, yet somehow, it is also modest. The user, as in all of Hasmukh Patel’s buildings, is at the centre of the experience.
Ahmedabad
Year: 1975
It is easy to miss the Reading Centre, even though it is prominently sited on one of the main access roads to Gujarat University. The building is exaggeratedly low. It appears to hover above the ground uncompromisingly silent and solid. From the street, not a single opening decorates the massive concrete block of its exterior. It is a brutalist building, yet somehow, it is also modest. The user, as in all of Hasmukh Patel’s buildings, is at the centre of the experience.