Freedom to explore.
Most of the museum spaces in India are retrofitted with an effort to achieve a singular, formalized and demarcated path to the exhibits. This singular path made these museum spaces incompatible to their glorious architectural form and became spaces of “one-time visit”. Modern museums have thence imbibed the freedom of flexibility and the joy of discovering.
Philosophical reflection.
A man represents a huge healthy tree with a vast foliage and roots going deep into the earth. Fruits and shade for the ground and leaves aiming to go up to the sky. Trees represent individuals and are yet connected to the larger foliage.
Variable Modules – Flexibility to the Curator.
These distinct exhibition modules of each prime minister have varied sizes, which come together to accommodate existing trees at site. These modules can be resized horizontally with additional plugin spaces or vertically with a mezzanine or lower ground. This gives utmost flexibility to the curator to create a conducive environment for the exhibits. The basement and mezzanine is conceptualized as a fabricated structure to be added or altered as desired.
Site – Context – Climate
The North and South Lawns of Teen Murti Bhavan multiply the grandeur of the place. The proposed building hence runs around the South Lawns in a curve to accommodate the vast green within as well as affording the opportunity to extend the museum in the years and decades to come.
The central gallery space opens out to the lush green lawns. The gallery is carefully aligned with precise stone screens that cut off the harsh sun while allowing visitors to enjoy the green vista.
The large water channel adjacent to the corridor creates a microclimate with evaporative cooling coming from the southwest direction.
The roof of each module ends onto the central gallery space and helps in collecting the rainwater in the underground tanks to suffice the requirement of the museum. The roof angle of the museum also accommodates the Solar PV Panels to generate the power requirement of the space.