Joshi Kinjal Anil

AD4021

The Story of Two Squares. Sanskar Kendra struggles in its present state. There is a conflict between the originally intended program and its relevance to the changing city of Ahmedabad. Originally, it was conceptualized as a continuous, infinite looping museum space, today it sits as a truncated story. Displaying Ahmedabad’s glorious past as a permanent exhibition, today does not fulfill this original idea of the museum as an infinite loop, where metaphorically, one can interpret the loop as the essence of today’s time. Showing only the city’s past in a museum in linked time frames poses a question and an observation about its current relevance for this city. A museum’s ability to engage people requires it to address their concerns for the city’s present and future. Ahmedabad is a pluralistic city and has witnessed historical evolution. Situated on the threshold of the old and new city, the city museum extension recalls the theory of heterogeneity, that aligns with this idea of multiplicity. The idea to accept difference as a necessity follows this idea. The existence of two radically different binaries cements this, yet accepts context radically, in an inclusive eclectic understated way. Programmatically, the new sits above the past, which is eternally static. It represents a co-existence of the past and future. The new extension, a play of boxes waiting to be unboxed, like a canvas on top of the static past, involves people's engagement and participation in the city. The proposal discusses how an addition to this inert monolith will set its nature as an urban, participatory platform and how this city shall engage with its kind.