The Dudhsagar Dairy plant is a milk processing plant located in

Mehsana Mehsana (), also spelled Mahesana, is a city and the headquarters of Mehsana district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Established in 14th century, the city was under Gaekwad dynasty, Gaekwads of Baroda State from 18th century to the independen ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, India. Owned and operated by

Dudhsagar Dairy The Dudhsagar Dairy (Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited) is a division of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation which is under the ownership of Ministry of Cooperation of the Government of Gujarat. Dudhsagar D ...

, a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

, it is a

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

building designed by

Achyut Kanvinde Achyut Purushottam Kanvinde (9 February 1916 – 28 December 2002) was an Indian architect who worked in functionalist approaches with elements of Brutalist architecture. He received the Padma Shri in 1974. Early life and education He was bo ...

. Commissioned in 1970, it was completed in 1973.

History

Architect Achyut Kanvinde was introduced to

Verghese Kurien Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012) was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur. He led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production in India termed as the White Revolution. Kurien gra ...

, a dairy technocrat, in 1962 when he invited by him to design cattle feed plant in

Anand, Gujarat Anand is a city and the administrative centre of Anand District in the state of Gujarat, India. It is administered by Anand Municipal Corporation. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Anand and Kheda district, Kheda district ...

. In 1970, he was commissioned to design a milk processing complex in Mehsana. He studied dairy plants in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

to make himself familiar with the dairy plants. He had found those plants utilitarian and arbitrary. He focused on functional needs of the dairy. The effective layout and good ventilation were a primary focus of his design. He analysed needs of milk processing plant requirements with help of dairy engineers. Kanvinde has called it "one of the most challenging assignment". He was assisted by V. H. Shah, a dairy specialist. The construction was completed in 1973. With similar architectural style, two more processing plants were built in 1983, followed by an office building with seven floors and an auditorium in 1985.

Architecture

Dudhsagar dairy building in Mehsana Gujarat India

The plant is a

building designed by Achyut Kanvinde. The plan separates the milk reception building and the processing plant which resulted in a simplicity in design. The plan also uses the slope of the site to create the multi-level building to take advantage of gravity instead of the use of pumping system. It results in energy and cost savings. The milk received via trucks is collected at the concrete decks at the highest level. Then milk is transferred to the pasteurization level followed by the condensation and powder plants respectively at lower levels. The plan uses seven metre-long square concrete grids to form various orthogonal spaces. The walls are built by bricks and the plant machinery stays framed within these grids. The different levels of these machinery is reached by bridges, walkways and stairs. Instead of exhaust fans to evacuate heat, the ventilation ducts are built around the milk reception building and the processing plants linking all spaces. These ventilation ducts rise as the shafts from the roof at various levels and have angular caps on the top. The slit windows in the walls bring in natural light and air while the spaces with machinery are artificially lighted to maintain hygiene.

Interpretations

The building is studied as the representation of the emerging building style in India as well as a late-modern building of the industrializing India. It is considered as an example of the merging of the top-down and bottom-up economic development models promoted by

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

and

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

respectively. It also represents the intermixing of the traditional Indian and modern as well as elite and subaltern architectural categories.

References

{{authority control 1973 establishments in India Tourist attractions in Mehsana district Mehsana Brutalist architecture in India Dairy buildings Postmodern architecture in India Buildings and structures in Gujarat Commercial buildings completed in 1973 20th-century architecture in India

History

Architecture

Interpretations

See also

References