Ahmedabad often calls to mind the cult of modernist architecture imagined by old masters like Le Corbusier, BV Doshi, Louis Kahn and Hasmukh C Patel. Even in their most austere concrete forms, their buildings exude candour and inventive imagination. It is with this sense of deliberate provocation that interior architect and curator Kunal Shah has titled his latest exhibition, Ahmedabad: Mecca of Design, on view until October 6 at 47/A, Khotachiwadi.

Modernism thrives in Gujarat in a way that it doesn’t in Punjab, where Chandigarh stands as an anomaly. “The unique blend of Gujarati flair for modern aesthetic, Jain philosophy, and brutalism promote simplicity as the highest form of sophistication. However, the city’s rapid changes are eroding these design values and the contemplative lifestyle they once supported,” Shah thinks.