CITATION
Cocoon-Farmer’s Pavilion, Tiruchirapalli
Architect: Manasaram Architects
Citation Note:
The Pavilion in Tiruchirapalli by Mansaram Architects is a collaborative project that involves students, architects, masons and villagers. Built with bamboo as structure and areca-palm bark panels as the skin, the Pavilion is a community facility in an ‘anti-urban’ setting.
Built in a short duration, the architecture of the Pavilion is composed of a wave-like form that is striking but is generated by the potential of bamboo as the structure. The form of the pavilion is an honest expression of its structure and represents the opportunity in an unconventional, natural material like Bamboo. The rural context of the Pavilion does not limit its imagination but rather, creates a backdrop fitting for the work and completes its relevance.
Designed and built as a ‘workshop’ project involving students, and residents of the village, the structure lends itself to an architecture that attempts to make no design statements and yet makes a memorable piece of architecture through a process that is led by materials and construction. There is thus no trace of visual anxiety and the structure seems obvious and effortless.
It is a relevant project – a model that is very pertinent also in the way architecture is taught and the way in which students can and should engage with their immediate surroundings. The Pavilion is a contemporary work of architecture that treats the process of construction and material exploration as integral to design. It exists in a landscape that rarely understands architecture and yet is created with much sophistication and clarity which is no accident.
We cannot undermine the significance of projects like this pavilion in pedagogy and practice of architecture in India. This work is made with much integrity as it seamlessly connects understanding of material, construction process, structure and skin, collaborative execution, intent and use, and therefore, the Cocoon-Farmer’s Pavilion is a Citation project in The Merit List.
Architect: Manasaram Architects
Project Design Team: Er. Rajendran
Site Area: 86.2 sqm
Built-up Area: 37 sqm
Client: Krishi Vigyan Kendra
Structural Consultants: Manasaram Architects
Contractor: Artisans, Labourers, Craftsmen and Students of C.A.R.E College of Architecture, Trichy and Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark
Additional Team: Students of C.A.R.E College of Architecture, Trichy and Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark
Year of Commencement-Completion: 2014
Photographs: Students of C.A.R.E College of Architecture, Trichy and Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark and Ar. Neelam Manjunath