WMF and Google Arts & Culture Launch Online Exhibit on Patel Stadium

Named for India’s first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium is an important example of the modernist experimentation that flourished across India in the years following independence. The product of a collaboration between renowned architect Charles Correa and talented engineer Mahendra Raj, the brutalist cricket stadium makes bold use of innovative concrete design and remains an important athletic space in the city of Ahmedabad.

This Google Arts & Culture exhibit explores the history and conservation of the stadium via a diverse array of media, including interviews, architectural drawings, archival photographs, and more.

In 2020, World Monuments Fund (WMF) named Patel Stadium to its Watch program in order to highlight the importance of preserving this iconic historic structure; that same year, The Getty Foundation selected the stadium for a Keeping It Modern grant, allowing WMF to produce a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan in partnership with the Amdavad Municipal Corporation and the National Centre for Safety of Heritage Structures at the Department of Civil Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. 

For the last two years, a group of international and local professionals have worked together conducting research, fieldwork, and site analysis, as well as engaging communities tied to the stadium to develop a thorough and inclusive Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan. Part of the material developed and collected in the process is shown in this online exhibit.

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World Monuments Fund safeguards cultural heritage around the globe, ensuring our treasured places are preserved for present and future generations. 

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WMF’s work at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium is made possible, in part, with support from the Getty Foundation.