For the India Pavilion in Hannover Messe 2015, Architecture Discipline took the opportunity to reframe this narrative for modernity that contemporary India represents through an architecture that envelops the specific identity of our culture, history and industry.
India was the official partner country for the Hannover Messe 2015 – a multinational expo in Germany. The representation of our involvement was to be designed as a pavilion that speaks about India’s contemporary culture, our aspirations as a nation of the young and perhaps, reinforces India’s global position. While the impermanence of a pavilion goes against the nature of any architectural endeavour, the scale of the enclosure, sense of structure, material applications and the human scale makes the typology an immensely appealing design proposition for an architect.
The challenge for the architects was two-fold. The first test was to assimilate the many dimensions of the exhaustive content that was to be presented in a curated and edited form. The second was to create a design space that is conducive to both – the content of the exhibit and the human interaction with that content, all the while striving to create a contemporary spatial expression for a modernising nation.
The assemblage of information was designed with a plan to convey pride in the many achievements in the domains of biotechnology, space, industry, information technology, automotive industry and manufacturing.
The pavilion itself is organised on a conceptual grid resembling the ‘Navgriha’ or the nine planets. The ‘Ikat’ carpet that lined the pavilion drew from the culture of textiles in India while a deconstructed lotus with its dynamic petals stretching across the pavilion formed the ceiling – the top plane of the exhibit. Contemporary interpretations of nostalgic elements from the Indian culture like the screens or the ‘Jaalis’ and the material palette composed of brass, wood, textile and steel were chosen to compose the ‘pods’ – enclosures within the pavilion that held content within.
The complex narrative that was edited for the pods as objects and interactive displays that the visitors can engage with, talked about India from many vantage points. Core sections other than the pods included a conference space with screens, a delegation conference room and several meeting rooms for discussions and exchange. The architecture of the pavilion created multi-purpose spaces that served for a variety of events and forums that this space played host to.
As known symbols from India’s cultural past were deconstructed to represent India’s future, the Pavilion served a larger purpose than being a mere enclosure for display.
The Make in India Pavilion at the Hannover Messe 2015 brings out a new India – not the India of the ‘snake-charmers’ and ‘stupas’ but an India of the space and information age, all the while gesturing to the past in an abstract underlay that became the base-grid for design. It reaches out to achieve the critical balance between a history that renders India her identity and a ‘modernity’ that takes a leap into the future ⊗
Led by Akshat Bhatt, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE is a New Delhi-based architecture and design office that engages with Urban Design, Architecture, Public Art, Installations, Furniture and Product Design. They constantly explore building typologies such as town halls, hotels, schools, offices, residences, sound and video production studios and the public realm through installations. The practice is process-guided and strives for programmatic & technical flexibility for the resulting construction. Since its inception in 2007, the office has received many critical acclaims and their work has been published in respected journals in India and abroad.
