A sweeping curvilinear volume rises up from the north eastern corner looping around the site & rising up on the north west corner creating a north facing open courtyard in the desert region of Nokha in Rajasthan, India in the Nokha Village Community Centre.
The brief of the clients was to create a memorial for their father Padmaramji Kularia.
Nokha is a district in Rajasthan that encompasses 144 small villages.
Studies of the vicinity & the current facilities in the village schools and the village areas fueled the need to create a community centre for all age groups.
The main spiral building of 9000 sqft becomes an inclined garden with 2 varying slopes allowing it to be used for recreation & gatherings, offering views of the surrounding desert landscape from the rooftop.
Underneath the garden , at the lower eastern side is a small museum with a children’s digital library on the higher western side.
The southern side is enveloped in a grass covered earth berm to mitigate heat gain in response to the desert climate with temperatures of 35 to 40°C for 8 months annually. The building forms an open courtyard with an amphitheatre to provide a space for music performances, talks & social interaction.
The ovoid library is sheathed in natural sandstone screens derived from traditional architecture in Rajasthan with the stone being sourced from the immediate surrounding area.
These reduce the heat gain and create different shadow patterns throughout the day.
The library serves all the village schools in the region , most of which do not have libraries of their own.
The museum is lit indirectly by scooped recesses within the roof garden berms .
To facilitate the servicing of large gatherings , a linear amenity block housing , cafeteria, toilets, stores & parking flanks the entrance at the northern side.
The roof top gardens , the stone screens , the north facing courtyard , southern grass berm, collectively reduce the heat gain rendering the spaces energy efficient.
Rainwater harvesting & water recycling , using local craftsmen & contract labor with materials available in the region make the building & its construction sustainable.
A building with a built up area of only 9000 sqft (810 sqm) generates a 9000 sqft roof top garden and a 27000 sqft open auditorium & in addition to the enclosed spaces generating usable space that is four times more than the built space.
A building programme that started as a memorial evolved into a community & learning space for villagers & children who did not have access to any of these facilities with this building encouraging people from 144 villages to visit & use its spaces in multiple ways.
