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The Comtrust is established in 1834, and was founded by Basel missionaries. After
ventures in various fields, the Comtrust turned to textile weaving in 144 by
introducing jacquard machine, which increased production and catalysed economic
fabric of the society.
The west coast being home to some of the finest weavers in India, to whom weaving
Thesis Report V-SPARC VIT
has been a traditional occupation, Comtrust soon introduced the popular ‘Calico’
material, which is said to be cloth from Calicut. Along with weaving, dyeing was
started, and Comtrust is credited for the intervention of the ‘Khaki’.
The company exported the Calico products throughout the British Empire and its
Clientele included Buckingham Palace and Air India Aircrafts.
In1949, the Calico textile museum of textiles was established in Ahmedabad to
preserve calico and other textile products owing to the significance of calico products.
In 2009, the factory all of a sudden was shut down due to disputes between the
management and the labourers and was permanently closed. There is no potential for
the site to support an industrial zone in the current scenario. In fact, the factory is in
a bad situation and structurally unstable.
5.3.1.1. Analysis of Existing Comtrust Factory
The analysis of the existing condition of the textile factory was conducted by
architecture students from Christ University as part of their Urban Studio in 2021.
The table illustrates the condition of each space within the Construct Textile factory.
Green indicates good condition, while shades turning darker to red signify worsening
condition for adaptive reuse.
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