Delhi in its every folds and crevices is embedded with tales narrating the nuances of plethora of eras, history and architecture gone by in the past. An evitable influence exudes through a proliferation of monuments dotted in and around the Capital which once stood on the precipice of multiple epochs. A perpetual blooming of the new from the old leaves Delhi as an interesting city of collages, an endless Kaleidoscope of images.
The ideation, planning and designing of the Rajaswa Bhawan-the offices for the Ministry of Revenue in the heart of Delhi spawned in 2011.The site lies in the predominant context of lutyen’s Delhi in a dual fabric of time zone. One end of the fabric seeps into the foothold of Modern India and the other is the present day India, a federal constitutional republic.<span style="\\"line-height:" 1.6em;\\"="">Sitting within the footpint of the Lutyen’s Hexagonal city plan based on equilateral triangle, a probable derivation from the star of David or Hindu Mandala. To gauge a deeper understanding of the site, a comprehensive research analysis in terms of architecture, geography, climate and cultural impact was took into account.A three layered design culminated the project in its manifolds. The first layer comprised of establishing Lutyen’s triangular grid, forming the first equilateral triangle, a result of continuation of a strong axis through the site. It is along this axis that the blocks are arranged in layers in such a manner that each block shades the other. Reminiscent of the planning of Indian temples and kingdoms, the second layer went about formulating the sequence of functions and movement from the outer core to inner core of the building, determined by hierarchy of power and formality of public areas. Accentuation of the strong axis by the use of ramps and crystal- an inverted pointed cupola derivative of lutyen’s geometric forms brought the third layer into action. A subtlety in terms of Indian context emanates through the use of design elements like Streets, Ramps, Step Wells (Baoli), Gateways and jaalis among others.
