3/6/2018 Competition for Indian War Museum – SRDA-LOGS

SRDA-LOGS

Competition for Indian War Museum

Details:  Global Architectural Competition for Indian National War Museum held by the
Government of India.
Held in: October/November 2016.

Our entry:

“A canon, every fteen minutes spurts out large blobs of blood red wax splattering itself at on a
wall across, accompanied by a large thud that resonated leaving the window panes in the room
rattling, and sent a shudder through the spine.

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 Anish Kapoor’s installation, called, “Shooting into the Corner” displayed at the Mehboob
Studios in Mumbai in November 2011 brings forth the message of excruciating pain of being
ambushed by terrorism. The narrative communicates provocative messages without being
banally instructive or informative.

Stories told well, be it to be read, seen or interpreted are far more impacting and invoke
thinking than banal displays and tomes of information which fail to engage beyond the
momentary.

The museum with its varying sized galleries (stacked in two levels) is intended to be one such
cauldron that will house and stage many stories. Stories of valour, sacri ce, victory; the
science and architecture of warfare, its politics and economics and its consequences, from our
very early past till the present day to be told with the primary aim to invoke the higher
signi cance of the idea of the collective superseding the individual; the collective as in the
family, the community, the nation that is us – INDIA.

 “Buoyant in a sea of trees”

 The design approach is multi layered  and was derived from several  salient  features within
its context that were  of design worthy considerations; – the location of site on a cross  axis
from the India Gate, 406 old trees, most of which must be saved, an existing foot print of
barracks , Delhi’s  dry climate and in its response, adoption of  passive energy  methodology,
water harvesting  and use of recycled materials to reduce the carbon foot print and a poetic
that draws from  the  narrative of  Indian  history of architecture .

The museum is an experiential narrative of architecture spatiality. The dark  spaces and the
light that penetrates through its wall, the tress in the narrow chisms between the walls of the
galleries , the bridges winding around the trees trunks , the undulating  belly of the galleries,
are  all designed to   create a choreography of light and texture: an experience that  keeps the
viewer in perpetual awe.

The building is solemn and yet monumental, its fort wall charred as if burnt, aspired from
imagery of devastations of war , and the galleries are in pristine marble , exposed brick , as 
large cauldrons-  powerful and thought provoking.

Its two basic facets: the fort and its landscape within.

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The architectonic elements being a huge long wall, and undulating ground plane and a public
plaza all connected by water, and gallery on stilts above like large cauldrons.

Its spatial features include dark corridors pierced with light, a viewing gallery at the top, a
hall of silence under water, and an underground tunnel to the memorial across the road and a
cemetery.

The content is categorized into 4 basic segments, of war and history, its science, victory and
human emotions. each segment  with  galleries dedicated  so that they  may be viewed
separately, may overlap  or seen all together at once  The museum is  thus less compelling,
allowing higher chances of a revisit. A temporary exhibitions gallery stands alone in glass
among the grove of trees.

The architectural haiku: – Buoyant; in a sea of trees. 

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srdatelier / March 21, 2017 / Uncategorized

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