Krushi Bhawan illustrates how a Government facility can extend itself to celebrate local context, craftsmanship and sustainability and become a vital part of the social infrastructure.
Programmatically, the project comprises a learning centre, library, auditorium, traiing rooms, garden and a public plaza, while the offices have been moved to the upper floors. The roof top too has been opened up to the public as a demonstration of urban farming.
An Institutional space being built for a State Government department, the 1,30,000 sqft project was initially intended for only official use. Studio Lotus suggested inserting a programme for a public space, which would allow for a significant part of the building facilities, to be shared as a part of the sociall infrastructure of the city. As a result, ground floor has been conceived as a free-glowing stilted area that connects to the pedestrian circulation from the street.
Designed as a passive-cooled structure with a night-purging ventilation system and a high thermal mass. The facade consists of a brick-louvered screen that acts as a solar shading device and expresses itself in the pattern of local weaves, its colors representing the geographical diversity of the region.
With the design team working closely with local consultants and craftsmen, the project promotes sensitisation to local materials and looks at new way of integrating craft in a contemporary environment. The material palette uses a combination of exposed brick and local stones like laterite and khondolite; adapting local motifs to an unprecedented architectural scale, Krushi Bhawan emerges as an example of how the government can serve as the prime patron of regional crafts.
Creating a strong contextual identity, Krushi Bhawan imbues a beautiful regional narrative of local craftsmanship through handcrafted furniture, stone carvings bred from agricultural folklores and screens and installations in metal depicting local mythologies.