Keshav Heda

AR2054

This is not just a place to receive information—but a space to engage, reflect, and feel. As a discourse center, the project begins with a question: how can dialogue be encouraged, not just intellectually, but emotionally? For people to truly discourse, certain feelings must surface—curiosity, stillness, even discomfort. Set along the riverfront in Ahmedabad, between a historic bastion and its offset, the site becomes a threshold. This in-between zone sets the tone—neither enclosed nor exposed, but layered with possibilities. Visitors move through a sequence of closed, semi-open, and open spaces that gradually unfold, allowing shifts in mood and perception. Built forms extend outward, creating sheltered outdoor areas where people might pause, interact, or retreat. The fort wall is kept at a respectful distance, with open voids in between—creating room for memory, context, and contrast. Rather than directing what should be said, the spaces aim to support how people arrive at expression—through movement, atmosphere, and quiet tension. The center becomes less about answers, and more about holding space for thought to emerge.