An intervention in the historic environs of the Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, the Jai Jagat Theatre by SEAlab is an effortless work of architecture that attempts to contrast the landscape, all the while building on the perceptual continuity of the place.
A century has passed since Mahatma Gandhi established the Sabarmati Ashram. Sketches by Anand Sonecha, partner, SEAlab, try and decipher the history of the site and the layers in which the buildings were built over time. Since its establishment, the environs of the Ashram have been able to assimilate new buildings and modifications to the existing buildings. Charles Correa’s landmark project – the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahlaya, buildings built and adapted for reuse by Neelkanth Chhaya and Yatin Pandya, and the historic buildings built by the freedom fighters and intellectuals are organized around old Neem trees and Gandhi’s house. The house itself is an elegant structure. More plinth and less building, the perceptively simple plan is both modern and radical – a machine perhaps for Satyagraha.
Jai Jagat Theatre is part of an education philosophy that provides the students with an opportunity to practice their performance skills, to gain confidence while addressing the public, to work in a group, to be disciplined and to have fun.
Designed as two concentric curves, the white walls of the theatre space are revealed in the corner of the site – a large court with institutional buildings built over time flanking it. The pathway, paved with bricks, attempts to connect these buildings and render a certain formal articulation to the central open space and the trees that exist on the site. The space also lends itself to other children and citizens in the vicinity. The walls enclose a sunk sanctum. One gradually descends into this sanctum on a mild ramp created by the movement of the curve. The sanctum space is a simple, elegant composition of essential spaces: the seats of the amphitheatre, the stage, the ‘Juliet Balcony’ with cantilevered steps and the white walls. The undulating silhouette of the wall and the punctures frame views from the immediate context – a water-tank, the old Montessori school, and a tree.
More landscape than building, the Jai Jagat Theatre becomes a set for plays to unfold. The modest scale of the white walls, the soft edges and the thoughtful articulation of levels lend themselves to the children who perform there. The space also invites people to have conversations and to find solitude. The most significant moment of the project is revealed in the way the wall frames the sky. The space is finely balanced between the act of association and disassociation with its immediate context.
Jai Jagat Theatre was inaugurated on 2nd October 2017 with a performance about the life of Gandhi, by children from Sabramati Ashram and the neighbouring communities . Three hundred people enjoyed the show and space. It was a wonderful moment, full of joy.
Jai Jagat Theatre is a social space. The architecture of the space originates from a simple, clear idea and yet, it resists the banal and the obvious by generating, in its wake, a new moment on the historic landscape. The beautiful articulation of the white walls at the eye-level and the seeming effortlessness of the curve is complemented by other restrained gestures in the landscape. The space simultaneously contrasts with and yet, complements the site ⊗
SEAlab is an organization founded by Anand Sonecha and Marina Paisana in 2015. Envisioned as a collective platform for architecture and arts, SEAlab engages with socially relevant architecture with an interest in understanding the cultural implications of their work. Beyond practice, SEAlab is involved in discourse through the Forum series of talks and conversation in Ahmedabad.
