The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has announced it will prioritise the care and conservation of the only three museums designed by the legendary Le Corbusier.

As part of its Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, the CGI will host two workshops in India, where two of the three museums are located – the Sanskar Kendra Museum in Ahmedabad and the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh.

The third, the National Museum of Western Art, is in Tokyo, Japan.

The workshops – taking place from 4 to 6 February in Ahmedabad and concluding 8 February in Chandigarh – will include representatives from the Fondation Le Corbusier and all three museums.

They will focus on improving both architectural conservation and collections management for each building, and a public lecture and panel discussion will be held to discuss the issues in detail.

The three museums were designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950s and 1960s and were the only ones he completed during a prolific career. Based on his trademark modernist philosophy and his concept of a “museum of unlimited growth", he created what he considered an ideal museum plan that allowed for future expansion.

According to the GCI, “the buildings are similar in size, shape, floor plan and exterior appearance, and share features such as sitting on an elevated pilotis, or thick concrete columns, and an exposed concrete frame with concrete floors and roof. Each museum was also designed to occupy a large plaza or open space, and is part of a cultural centre".

Speaking about the workshops, Susan Macdonald, head of Buildings and Sites at the GCI, said: “By asking the museum participants to consider what is significant about their respective museums as individual buildings and as part of the larger collected work of a great architect, each can better develop the necessary conservation policies to care for these significant buildings and their important collections.

“They will also discuss shared conservation challenges and potential solutions, thus creating a network of stewards of these important museums.”

The Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative seeks to advance conservation of 20th-century heritage through information sharing and the development of practical conservation solutions.

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