By Marina Correa
Photography: Abin Design Studio and Rangan Chatterjee
A museum and academic
research centre dedicated to the late revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, architecturally
expresses his zealous ideas through a series of ‘twisted’ cuboids…
Located on an arterial road
of a planned township in New Town Kolkata, this 90,000 sq ft (total plot size 2 acres) tribute
to the renowned poet is surrounded by generic built forms with no active public
spaces nearby; a prime reason that the building is conceptualized as an
inward-looking breathing space amidst the dense city fabric, opines principal
architect Abin Chaudhury of Abin Design Studio.
The building is composed of
free-standing masses in the form of variously-sized twisted cuboids that are
cohesively connected as an introverted mass around a central green courtyard.
The architectural interweaving facilitates a break out space that can be peered
into from all quarters – the openness and connectivity representational of Kazi
Nazrul’s philosophical ideals. A series of spaces, from indoor to outdoor
footprint a journey that is strongly evocative of the poet – what with the
monolithic form, material homogeneity, natal light inter-layers and the like.
Skylights as primary sources
of the requisite diffused light for the museum, exhibition spaces and
transition areas; and water bodies not only heighten the aesthetic but also
bring down the ambient temperature via evaporative cooling and are traditional
architectural aspects that open up the environs to bountiful nature.
Implementing a sustainable
and cost-effective strategy, thin exterior RC walls have helped save energy,
cost and time, while homogeneity of materials such as self-compacting
concrete have helped reduce
wastage, and provide thermal protection – aspects that have aided completion in a record
10 months despite it being a government project!
Exploring innovative ways
of working with concrete, the architects use CNC-cut foam as formwork on a dyed
exposed concrete wall inscribing on it a few famous words of the poet, thereby
introducing a contextually rooted personalized touch and a heightened aesthetic
element to the façade.
The building strong in its
architectural expression is otherwise kept subdued with cement-coloured
flooring and black wall tiles with just a fiery orange-reddish hue that
splashes across a handful of strategic elements – seats in the central
courtyard, stairway banisters, and a large cement banner… like a stroke of lightning,
a befitting paean to Kazi Islam’s unconventional philosophy.
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