Mill Owners

Association Building

Presented By:
Suril Gajera
Yangzao Li
Darrion Orpinel
Sahar Radwan
Neha Rampuria

ARCH 631 - Fall 2019

Source - Archdaily website
Prof. Anne Nichols
Introduction
- Location - Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India - Temperature - 55 F (min), upto 125 F(max)
- Architect - Le Corbusier - Climate - hot and semi-arid
- Client - Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association - Annual Rainfall ~ 31 inches
- Timeline - 1954-1956
- Height ~ 58 ft
- Floors - 3

Source - Maps of India webpage Source - Wikipedia

Source - Google Maps
Site
- Elevation – 174ft.
- Soil Type – Sandy and Dry.
- Seismic Zone – 3.
Figure 1. Bird Eye View of
Site

Figure 2. Site Plan.

Background and Design Concept
Corbusier was invited to India by its first president to design
the capital city of Chandigarh in 1951.

This is when he was commissioned by the mayor of

Ahmedabad to do five projects in the city which reflects its
futuristic vision.

ATMA House was one of the first ones to get completed.

The building design majorly focused on the climate and culture

of the people. Inspired by the local architecture and
considering immediate context, various design principles were
laid out.

Unite d’habitation Ronchamp Shodhan Villa

Source - Foundation Le Corbusier Source - www.researchgate.net Archdaily Archdaily

Five Points of Architecture
- Raised Structure
- A free facade
- Open Floor Plan
- Ribbon windows
- Rooftop Garden
Source - Vanny Ang, Pinterest

The Modular
Le Corbusier explicitly used the Modular to derive his scales and
architectural proportions.

Source - Foundation Le Corbusier

Building Geometry
● Three Levels

● Elongated Entrance

● Rectangular Exterior

● Organic Interior Shapes

First Floor Plan

Figure 3. Figure 7.

Figure 4. Figure 8.

Figure 5. Figure 9.

Figure 11.
Figure 6. Figure 10.
Second Floor Plan

Figure 12. Figure 16.

Figure 13. Figure 17.

Figure 14. Figure 18.

Figure 20.
Figure 15. Figure 19.
Third Floor Plan

Figure 21. Figure 22.

Figure 23. Figure 24.

Figure 25. Figure 26.

Figure 29.

Figure 27. Figure 28.

Mezzanine Floor Plan

Figure 32.

Figure 30. Figure 33.

Figure 31. Figure 34.

Figure 36 .
Figure 35.
Special Features
-Roof slab is used to link
Curvilinear Roof the façade structure
and the main structure
- The roof designed to
be a reproductive roof
garden

Bracing system
dependent on the
floor height

The facades have

separate reinforcement
concrete structure

Planted shelves at
first and second
facade floors

Alvaro, Pinterest
Brise Soleil / Sun Breakers

Figure 37. January, Sun Breaker at 12:30 pm. Figure 39. July, Sun Breaker at 12:30 pm.

Figure 38. April, Sun Breaker at 12:30 pm. Figure 40. October, Sun Breaker at 12:30 pm.
Foundation
Because the soil in this area is dry sandy soil which has limited load bearing
capacity, it is speculated that the strip foundation was used in the design.

In the strip foundation, the foundation beam has a large shear, bending and
punching shear resistance, which is suitable for the situation that the load of
the column is large, and the bearing capacity of the soil layer is low.

An example of strip foundation An example of isolated footing

Structural Systems
This building has a rigid frame - shearing walls structural system, there There is no column at the end span and middle span,
are 4 primary shearing walls and 16 secondary shearing walls (bearing so shearing walls were used to act as columns.
only self weight). The grid span is 24ft*24ft.

Columns
Primary shearing walls
Secondary shearing walls
(bearing only self weight)
Structural Systems

Beam (Single - way)

Primary shearing walls

Secondary shearing walls

Column

This is a one-way beam frame

structure, and the rigid floor
plates can be regarded as
“beams” in the other direction.
Load Tracing
● Roof Distribution through anchors
● Through columns and Diaphragms
● Brise Soleil Carry little load
 Figure 1

Visual Analysis

For the first section (figure 1), all the vertical members are circular
columns, and the horizontal elements are the beams, in the graphs we
selected one beam and one column to add its results for the moment
shear and deflection as shown in the graphs below.
 Figure 2
We’ve added fixed nodes at the ground base connection, the
primary structural system consists of beams and columns grid,
by applying the dead and live loads on it we got these results in
the graphs below.
For the second section (figure 2), the middle three vertical
members are the circular columns, the shear wall as the area in
the middle, and the members at the edges are the bricks
bearing walls, the nodes connections at intersections are
pinned.
Load transfer in Roof

Figures above shows how the load of the curvilinear roof is

getting transferred through the main beams to the
foundations
Summary

This report is composed of a brief background of Mill Owner’s Association, the city of Ahmedabad ,the Architect - Le Corbusier
and how they came together to build this project. ATMA House has become an iconic structure in the history of Architecture in
India. Not only it is a great example of an artistic design but received appreciation for its structural innovation. Special features
like the Curvilinear roof and Brise Soleil, as descried in the report, were interesting learning in terms of its structural support
system as well as its purpose. Furthermore, load tracing and analysis describes how each member behaves in this system and
plays its role in transferring the load to the foundation.

Through this structure, the Architect and the engineer have redefined the idea of inside outside. The ceremonial ramp,
perforated façade, curvilinear forms and ample open spaces harmonizes with it surrounding and stood out as a bold expression
of modern aesthetic.
References
Building Codes
For Load Calculations :
- Dead Load - IS 875 Part 1
Figure 2, 11, 20, 36. by Author.
- Live Load - IS 875 Part 2
Figure 3-10; 12-19; 21-28; 30-35; from ATMA Wordpress Blog
- Wind Load - IS 875 Part 3
Figure 37-40 from Google Sketchup Warehouse
- Earthquake Load - IS 1893

- Ahmedabad’s Textile Industry and its booming past (2017) - article at For Design :
Voice by Kunjan Panchal Concrete - IS 456, SP 16
- Mill Owners Association Building Ahmedabad - Wikipedia
- #Archifocus: Le Corbusier building in India (2017) - article on Architect ● IS Codes 875 - Indian Standard
by Rima Alsammarae Code of Practice for Design Loads (other than earthquake)
- The Mill Owners Building of Le Corbusier - ATMA Webpage for buildings and Structures
- Mill Owners’ Association Building / Le Corbusier - Archdaily ● IS 1893 - Indian Standard
- Foundation Le Corbusier Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures
● SP-16 - Design Aids for Reinforced Concrete to IS: 456-1978
 ATMA House, Ahmedabad
Presented By:
Suril Gajera, Yangzao Li, Darrion Orpinel, Sahar Radwan, Neha Rampuria