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Setting a jail free
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A small architecture firm surprised heavyweights when its design was chosen for the old Central Jail's makeover
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The proud team of architects: on solid conceptual ground
WHEN THE powers-that-be decided to redefine the former Bangalore Central Jail as a Freedom Park, it was the talk of the town. The buzz grew louder when a totally transparent, all-India contest for architects was floated about four months ago. It caught the city by surprise when a small firm, Mathew & Ghosh Architects, launched in 1995 with its office at Viveknagar, made it to the national shortlist of five. In late November, its design was the jury's final choice for the Rs. 5 crore urban park, slated to get off the ground before March. What's special about their redefinition of the 20-acre space, bound by Seshadri, Ramachandra, and Kalidasa Roads? A sense of collective history, retaining footprints of the old within the new. A celebration of a people's space — to browse about Bangalore in an e-corridor with touch screens, to gather for a concert or a theatre event, to run and play in a children's space with outdoor installations, or to tantalise the taste buds through a food court.
Throughout the turreted, textured landscape, almost invisible markers guide the eye into possible zones for a chat, a picnic, an informal discussion, while beacons of light in earth markers signal an evening's happening spots. They doubly highlight landscape designer Michael Little's sensitive interpretation of natural life, each confined to a plant species, almost as in a tree museum. Each marker could be the curved wall of an amphitheatre, or a wall with columns where you could place a canvas, defining a place of possibilities.
The concept comes from an eight-strong team headed by Ahmedabad-trained architects Nisha Mathew Ghosh and Soumitro Ghosh. Their earlier projects have left an imprint on the Bangalore retina through a modern Baptist Church in Koramangala, a floriculture factory on the city's periphery, the GallerySKE, and a private art collector-businessman's office space off Kasturba Cross Road.
It was while visiting Martand Singh's khadi exhibition at the Central Jail last August that Nisha and Soumitro began fantasising about redefining that once negative, yet compelling, space. "Wow! Wouldn't it be something to do a project here?" recalls Nisha, as a preamble to explaining their scale model at the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) offices in early December. "Soumitro and I did the initial concept, to integrate the unsaid brief, our reading of the client, of history." All the detailing ties back to the solid conceptual ground. "Perhaps the name Freedom Park derives from the organisers' idea of setting the jail free," Nisha muses. "A place of possibilities for any Bangalorean, though never yet viewed as a destination." The site, peripheral to the old city and the new cantonment, lies along the north-south axis from the Old Fort to the Palace. "We thought we should bring that back as cognitive memory for the city, enhancing its significance," she stresses. "The contoured earth plane is seen as a warping plate, partly hiding, partly revealing, forms."
The organisers sought the retention of axial buildings like the watchtower and the parallel central walls. The former hospital, which takes on steel inserts and a floating roof, could include an exhibition space, a cyber café, a book nook, and two 30-seater theatres, opening onto a plaza. "We should be able to creatively use some of the debris that comes off the barracks site," Nisha says. The watchtower will be transformed into a souvenir shop.
What fed into the SEPT-trained architects' history, apart from training with the likes of Doshi, Raje, and Varkey? Perhaps Bishop Cotton-schooled Nisha's architectural thesis on the Bohra houses of Surat, and Meerut-educated Soumitro's study of Ujjain, both reinforcing their sense of the past. "I see this as a god-enabled opportunity," Nisha says fervently Apart from liberating the goal premises, the Freedom Park could redefine Bangalore's recreation options creatively. That's if Mathew and Ghosh are allowed to guide its integral look.
The finalists' drawings and models for the Freedom Park competition, organised by BMP and the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) are on display at the TAGB gallery, Shah Sultan, Cunningham Road (above Shezan) till December 31, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m..
ADITI DE
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
