FIELD OBSERVATION

-KALABHOOMI

SUBMITTED BY- SONU MOHAPATRA (1802106013)

 Odisha State Crafts Museum also known as Kalabhoomi is envisaged as a
confluence of the state’s diverse ethnic, folk and craft culture in its capital,
Bhubaneswar. The museum has dedicated galleries for terracotta, traditional
painting, stone and wood crafts, metal crafts, and handloom. Courtyards
dedicated to tribal living and temple architecture are part of the museum
complex. The entrance forecourt to the museum has a Grama devi installation
under a large tree. An amphitheatre, souvenir shop, outdoor canteen and
children’s play area interweave with spaces for outdoor display. Installations of
traditional Tulsi Charaha form a recurrent motif in the outdoors.

The architecture of the museum buildings invoked the image of bamboo palisades found in
village dwellings, as a maetallic gate design, while the carved laterite compound wall
detailed by skilled craftsmen, alluded to mansions and temples.

The existing trees (one of each species) that find use in traditional handicraft or have
religious significance , are articulated with a carved laterite planter. The stepped walls
abstract village building masses and function as screens and pedestals for display of
grain container earthenware seen outside village houses. The Tulsi Charahas installed
by the museum curatorial team are some of the most rare examples of a lost art form.
A stepped rainwater kund, referenced from the kunds in the vicinity of temples,
functions as a key transition zone between blocks. The space opposite the
laterite kund is an attempt to allow users and programmes to create new and
temporary meanings for this space. It consists of contrasting images such as a
platform under an existing mango tree, like a village sitout, with the background
of tall buildings of the adjoining site.

The Amra (mango) Marg between the Handicraft and Handloom blocks, with
the straight wide pathway and building facade designed like local houses
invokes the principal streets of the Jagganath Puri procession route.

The Conservation zone along the South-west of the site receives the entire runoff
from the site. This zone is designed as a bio-drainage area to naturally take up
excessive moisture and prevent sedimentation.
A Kadamba grove and a wide swathe of naturally growing grasses collectively
provide this function as the landscape edge blurs into the existing Palmyra trees
and understorey which extend beyond the site edge. The attempt here is to
broaden the green linkage and bring biodiversity into the site through this
extended landscape corridor.
THANK YOU