National War Memorial: New Delhi, 2016

Project Description Project Description

To foster a collective and commerative experience of honoring the soldiers who have laid down their life for the country. Although as time passes and the immediacy of pain and grief subsides, the memory of the public consciousness, of tribute and homage to the martyrs and their sacrifices must never fade. As much as a memorial serves the purpose of honoring the dead, it also acts as an avenue for those who are alive and wish to humbly connect and share the grief and the pain with those who are fallen. The proposed design juxtaposes public open spaces and memorial in a continually shifting relationship, that creates a dichotomy of use and meaning. We propose on creating a memorial which develops ample public space for congregation and leaving out open spaces for furthering natural conventions and building sustainable structure which provides an introspective experience, parallel or identical aesthetics and acts as a befitting architectural wonder for the rising india.

The Site
The India Gate complex has long stood as an epicenter cumulative patriotism in the country. The grand Republic day parade that culminates at the memorial is symbolic of the glorious journey our jawans in the Armed force undertake. The heroics of these sons can only be done justice through the grandeur of the India Gate and the sublimity of the adjoining National War Memorial, a proposed architectural gesture to celebrate victory, to honour and commemorate the sacrifice and to educate fellow Indians about the life, death and all that our fallen Jawans had stood for.

Visual Axis
Just as Lutyen intended on linking major government structures to the then monuments of wonder like the Jama Masjid, Safdarjung’s tomb and Indraprastha. The proposal creates a visual corridor for visitors to the India Gate and the Chhatri. The Memorial wall is parallel to the inner roads of the canopy hexagon and converges at the Chhatri to visually link the India Gate and Chhatri at any given point of the wall. The negative spaces through the center of the Plaza and Cenotaph creates a visual axis and keeps the Chhatri at its focal point.

Identity
When standing along the memorial walls having Chhatri at its focal point and grandeur of India Gate on the side, one can see at one go all these elements also in reflection of memorial walls creating a constant binding identity between the three, The Memorial wall, Chhatri and India Gate.

Status - Proposal for Competition in 2016