Sanskriti Vihara Cultural Complex|Mumbai|2021

Project Description

The site and context of a 109 foot high temple shikhar prompts their design. The strategy is to evolve a building which is as inclusive in spirit and working as the eastern philosophies that will be studied here. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism all have been rooted in India and over the millennia, and shaped their culture. Making us unique as a people. The common factor of these oldest and most refined religions is inclusivity - the ability to absorb all nuances of human nature and through clear thought and conduct, delivering a true peace of mutual coexistence with all creatures and nature on the planet.

The team choose to understand this inclusivity in all their architecture, a means to deliver true meaning to their work through understanding their specificity of context. We are born of this culture of peace. The architectural solution the architects propose, positions the construct of the building, as a modern day.

A feature that has been an adjunct to temples from the early ages- where the very genesis of life was performed. A place of congregation, reflection, a place of respecting and understanding the almighty forces of nature such as PRITHVI (earth), JAL (water), AGNI (fire), VAYU (air), AAKASH (sky). The kund the architects propose is a modular construct entered at middle level, to make movement within convenient.

The topography of the kund will celebrate the temple, the elements, through harnessing them with modern technology. the spirit of their proposal is to dig into the earth, create a construct out of bare brick arches... being homage to the earth prithvi.

The kund like construct will harness the rain water as a true stepped well. pumped, filtered and used for the service of the students. the wind catchers atop the building help ventilate the construct as support to services and fresh air changes. The entire kund construct, has a stepping surface. this surface becomes a phenomenological traversal of the levels, of time, of finding your own path.... becoming a zone encouraging the interfaith.... We see architects see students and teachers meeting, congregating, interacting informally, under the sky aakash. The mythical universe.

The architects want their building to promote a sense of wonder, a burning passion to learn the essence of these faiths keeping the agni of knowledge alive! buildings with such strong ,meaningful purposes as this, where the entire focus is on education, on the spirit of realisations shared by learned souls, need to be vessels of transportation, from darkness to light, from mere existence to aware beings, from seeing the light and progressing to enlightenment.