The BHARAT BHAVAN finds its identity within its CONNECT to the multi layering of the Hybrid programs acting as a PLUG-IN within the existing ecology. 

Bharat Bhawan 1.0 was conceived in 1982 as a repository for tangible and intangible heritage that could be passed down the generations with its intentions relevant to the times. Post the economic liberalization in the early 90s where the country opened its economy to globalization, India has grown at a phenomenal rate. The country saw the rise of satellite cities which is where the new India resides. But they pose some pertinent challenges, one of which is IDENTITY. This is the India without the baggage of its past. It forms a New CULTURE or the Un-CULTURE. The proposal for Bharat Bhawan 2.0 chooses to address this IDENTITY of UN-CULTURE to showcase the multi-facets of the country to the world.

Bharat Bhavan 2.0 was conceived as an idea that was designed on the aspirations of the user, evolving lifestyles and cultural contexts. The design operates on the notion that instead of creating a singular destination where people go to experience culture a, PLUG-IN is designed that takes culture to the public.

The functions of the Bharat Bhavan 2.0 are the same and more, but it is the setting that redefines the way they are perceived. A space is evaluated through an entirely reorganized vocabulary: no longer is it geometrically composed or visualized, but computed, calibrated, assessed, predicted & optimized. Analogically drawn from the original lifelines of India – its Rivers, Bharat Bhawan 2.0 looks at cultural reinvigoration through a fluid, seamless, continuous flow of ‘CULTURE ‘that is not isolated and displaced but rather as a set of Plug-Ins that could permeate any contextual setting.

 The local culture of new India is not found in the history but in the future of its transforming nature. The design draws its inspiration from the rivers of India and its ghats in a series of paths and platforms and the concept of PLUG IN which connects the BHARAT BHAVAN 2.0 to the people as they transgress through their daily lives. The idea is that one doesn’t need to go to culture but it happens all around you.

The design is conceived as a journey rather than a destination.

The site or the UN-SITE as we like to think about it is located at the intersection of the urban lifestyle of the satellite cities of the new age INDIA. Gurugram is an apt representation of the New India. This is the India without the baggage of its past. It forms the Un-CULTURED city where new culture is defined by the blurring of the multi-caste creed and religions of India and multi- opportunities it provides. We want the site to be a part of a hybrid complex where multiple tiers of lives co-exist.

Cyberhub, Gurgaon is selected as the testing lab as it is a complex mixed-use environment with layered interjections. The site situates itself in between the built and overlaps the social street providing opportunities for social interactions and cultural exchanges. The BHARAT BHAVAN finds its identity within its CONNECTS to the multi layering of the Hybrid Programs.

Mapping of site is done to generate an understanding of the surrounding programs such that the resultant design ties into the old and creates a new which can grow into the future. The site being mainly pedestrian, the existing flow, movement and exchange of the social street has been maintained. The existing context is categorized into different layered elements so that the proposed design can be a derivative and an extension.

The BHAVAN is in situ as it draws from the existing context by creating an axial intersection that is to become the final intervention point. Programs are mapped and dispersed through the layering of the platforms and paths so that cultural events are no longer disconnected and accessibility to the possibilities are maximized. The project is conceived as a resultant of multiple ideas operating simultaneously on ecology, experience and historic mapping. The project associates with the city by engaging with the constraints of program relationships, and its urban context to construct a new typological destination.

Architecture is no longer defined by its form but how it performs in a given time and place.