Precedents

Crafts Museum, New Deli, India 1979 (Architect: Charles Correa)

Many of the temples in the past (at Bali, Borobudur, Shrirangam, etc.) are structured around an open-to-sky ceremonial path – a concept which has great potential for our architecture today. This museum, casual and accepting of the artisan’s vernacular, if organized around a cenreal spine which acts like a village street. As one travels down this path, one catches glimpses of the sections that lie on either side. Entrances to – and exits from – each section are easily discernable as they always occurs in the sheltered space under the overhead bridges. Thus one can visit just a particular area, or progress through all the sections along a continuous path. At the end of the sequence, one exits via the roof garden – which forms an amphitheater for folk dances, as well as an open-air display for large terra cotta horses and other such village crafts. This idea of using all the surfaces of the puzzle-box was also developed in our project (1968, unbuilt) for Expo `70 at Osaka. The images of this scaleless non-building echo the old bathing ghats, such as those at the incomparable Sarkhej in Ahmedabad.

The first stage of the Crafts Museum was completed in 1977 and second and third stages are under construction. In these, an old wooden haveli from Gujerat is being integrated into one of the courtyards.( Process: Architecture, Number 20)

Bibliography

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Treister, Kenneth (1987), Chinese Architecture, Urban Planning, and Landscape Design, Florida Architecture and Building Research Center.

Correa, Charles (2000), Housing and Urbanization, Thames & Hudson, London

Murotani, Bunji (1980),  Process: Architecture, Number 20,  Process Architecture Publishing Co. Ltd. Tokyo.

Architectural Review, 1999, June, Neil Williams, London

A+U, 1999, January, A+U Publishing Co. Ltd, Tokyo

Bohigas, Oriol (1991), Barcelona :City and Architecture, 1980-1992, Rizzoli, New York