selected studio works

Museum of Contemporary Architecture at Sultangarhi, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi was the subject of my final year thesis at SPA. This design was commended by the jury and together with previous four years of academic achievement was awarded the Gold Medal for architecture in 2005.

View of Delhi ridge forest from the adjacent ruins

OBJECTIVES:

• promotion of better architecture and built environment
• helping everyone understand and appreciate the potential of architecture and design.
• encouraging public engagement and demand for excellence in art, design and architecture.

THE SITE

180 degree pan view of the site from the Sultangarhi tomb

The site is flanked by Sultangarhi (a 13th century underground tomb) to the west; Vasant kunj (a modern housing) to its east. a stone quarry which gets converted into a lake during monsoons on its north and the Indian spinal centre on its south side. Modern inhabitants are oblivious about the significance of the tomb, its ruins, the water reservoir and the crucial role this site played in the history of Delhi. This is in stark contrast to the villagers who come for an annual festival from different parts of India.

CONTEXT:

• historicity and permanence of the Sultanghari tomb and ruins
• temporality of the lake formed in the harsh and fragmented stone quarries.
• modernity of indian spinal centre and vasant kunj
  

OPPORTUNITY:

• to understand the implications of a new development in an existing, historical and contextual setting
• to respond to the core question: what constitutes architecture? what is the most crucial element within its realm?
• to define the main components which would create this space and to search for an appropriate architectural language for ''housing'' architecture

TRIGGER

Jean Nouvel on modern Art Galleries -

Gallery space design is not merely a matter of the architect's whim, nor is it justified by the fact that certain exhibitions profit from it . Rather, museums and galleries in the new age must be designed considering conventional approaches to be outmoded. "Art needs to be experienced more widely. Not through schemes of patronage like the .01% idea, but by a greater public involvement".

CONCEPT:

This will not simply be a contextual gesture to the extent of blending in with the existing fabric. The opposite rather, the proposal completely reinteprets current approaches to gallery and museum design, it brings the ''human'' and his ''senses'' to the core making it the essence of the experience. It creates four galleries dedicated to sight(3), tactility(4), memory(5) and sound(6) (refer image above) with the transparent visual gallery connecting all of them where the visitor becomes part of the installation and completes the experience. The galleries reach out to the tomb and ruins accomodating informal, spill out spaces between them. The public square(1) which acts as the pivot and blurs the boundary between outside and inside is a thorough fare connecting the festival square to the woods.

The proposal breaks out of the introverted exclusive model used for museum design.

Plan at lvl. -500

scale 1:200

Main Components:

public square, tactile gallery, aural gallery, visual gallery, memory gallery, media installation space, outdoor cafe, landscape courts, orientation room, archive section, entrance lobby and administration room

Entrance through the woods, connecting the Sultangarhi Tomb to the front entrance of the museum through the public square, bringing back the link which existed centuries ago.

Discounting the past is dangerous. The future needs to be built on a prudent understanding of the past, not an imitation of its symbols. Architecture that responds to this reality then goes on to be timeless .

Tactile Gallery is inspired by the experience in a hindu temple where the devotee experiences sentience in different manifestations. Using natural elements, textures and controlled light, the visitor is helped into a state where he connects with his deeper self and universal rhythms.

Memory Gallery plays with the associative power of memory and physically manifests it with abstract light events which are projected from voids inside two tapering walls, as if entering into the deeper confines of one's past.

The galleries contribute to the crucial aspect of ART, the CITY and its HABITANTS . Art, both practical and symbolic has always been applied to freshen up architecture, ranging from individual buildings to entire cities. Art has the power to transform architecture tremendously

In the future, urban areas will be recognized by their cultural markers rather than their historical heritage alone.