Chandigarh College of Architecture etches its name on India’s architectural landscape

Aditi Tandon

Advertisement

New Delhi, July 28

Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh this week etched its name on India’s architectural landscape with a team of faculty and students from the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) concluding a prestigious project capturing flooring patterns British architect Edwin Lutyens designed for the abode of the Viceroy, now the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The two-volume work, “Interpreting Geometries: The Flooring Patterns of the Rashtrapati Bhavan”, is the first repository of intricate flooring designs at the majestic building, and was presented to President Droupadi Murmu on Friday.

While the first volume examines 22 spaces and decodes 31 patterns across the ceremonial areas of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a three-storied, H-shaped building; the second covers floor patterns across the building’s intimate spaces — family and guest wings apart from the President and Cabinet secretariat.

Speaking to The Tribune about the work, CCA principal Sangeeta Bagga, who led the project, said the Rashtrapati Bhavan was a much-written about national heritage, but there was no work about its flooring.

The CCA had bagged the project among 470 institutions and the work was formally commissioned after Bagga’s reconnaissance survey of the site in September 2021.

The first volume describes the design philosophy and inception of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Raisina Hill, its unique flooring and features multiple architectural floor pattern drawings apart from interpretation sketches to understand the designs.

“The second volume undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the intricate geometrical flooring patterns that adorn the 340 rooms of Rashtrapati Bhavan. It Interprets design principles, materials and their functional roles in the building’s layout, explores the mathematical ratios and relationships within floor patterns and demonstrates the fusion of simple and complex patterns through basic shapes like squares, circles and triangles in various configurations for flooring patterns,” Bagga says.

It took the team frequent visits of the Rashtrapati Bhavan since 2021 to accomplish the project. They often worked beyond sunset hours as mapping of floors was possible only after the official timings at the President’s house.

“The work involved rolling up of floor coverings, including carpets, and removing furniture to capture a complete floor geometry with an aerial picture or spreading a trace sheet to actually draw a floral geometry by sitting on the floor,” Bagga explains.

The second volume also contains four seminal writings to contribute to historical scholarship about the design philosophy and the socio-cultural climate in which work of Lutyens was set in India. It starts with Bagga’s lead essay which uses a historical lens to gaze at the construction of New Delhi, King George V’s decision to relocate the British Empire’s capital to a central and secure location; the collaboration between Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker in designing the new capital with Lutyens focusing on the Viceroy’s House and Baker on the secretariats.

Asked whether the Rashtrapati Bhavan design was purely colonial, the team said no.

“It has the influence of Indian architectural elements, including Hindu, Buddhist and Mughal motifs. Lutyens combined European and Indian traditions, deploying grids and geometric symmetry to create the layout of Lutyens’ Delhi, showcasing a fusion of modernity and tradition,” CCA students Anav Sharma and Sidhant Madan, say.

The President’s secretariat hosted the CCA team at Peacock Apartments, a set of stylish, fully-furnished service apartments equipped with a small kitchenette each, a gym around the corner, a swimming pool and a restaurant. These apartments were added to the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate in July 2014 for the use of senior officers, aides-de-camp to the President and special visitors.

Those behind the feat

Faculty: Principal Sangeeta Bagga, Saumya Sharma, Shilpa Sood, Vipendra Thakur well-versed in conservation, material and building techniques | Six PG students: Madhur Manan, Indranil Mitra, Ashwathy Nair, Heena Lakhani, Karan Arora and Yogesh Makkar.