Abin Design Studio

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure

ARTHSHILA – CULTURAL ADAPTATION RE-USING PRIVATE INFRASTRUCTURE

Abin Design Studio

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

PROGRAM / USE / BUILDING FUNCTION
Educational

STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT
Subhranaryan Shil

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Subhasish Dey

CERAMIC ARTIST
Partha Dasgupta

DESIGN TEAM
Abin Chaudhuri, Subhasish Dey, Mayank Nigam, Sreemoyee Ray, Rukmini Mukherjee

GLAZING CONSULTANT
Aesthetik Engineers

PHOTOGRAPHS
Niveditaa Gupta

AREA
425 M²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Santiniketan, India

CATEGORY
Cultural Architecture, Adaptive Reuse

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

Santiniketan is the cradle of the Bengali Renaissance, primarily because of its close ties with Rabindranath Tagore.

This is the place where the red soil and the air breathe music, art, and, culture.

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

Inspired by this unique setting, a center amidst nature emerges as a cusp of culture and heritage that resonates with Bengal’s ethnicity in a different spectrum. Arthshila is a first-of-its-kind confluence of workshops, exhibition spaces, as well as indoor and outdoor art galleries.

A 22-year-old architect, with the help of his professor, sketched a vision of a residential building with a sloped concrete roof. 

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

Decades after, when the founder of Takshila, an Educational Society, approached ADS to restructure a 3BHK residence into a cultural epicenter, it was a dream that came true.Definitely, it is a unique dream for any architect to subsume a different function onto the same building footprint.

The strategy taken was simple: to retain the profile of the old residence, an additional extension to the same slope of the house is introduced. 

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

This creates an elaborate shading device for the open plaza to protect it from the harsh summer sun and torrential incessant monsoon rain.

The extended roof serves a dual purpose by also becoming the unique feature that narrates the language of the space and adds a cultural scale to the building – it transforms a humble home into a grand pavilion for public gatherings.

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

The internal rooms on the Ground Floor are converted into galleries while the top floor rooms and terraces witness their transformation into a library, a gallery, and guest rooms. 

To pay homage to the immediate surroundings, this project after extension has restored all the existing full-grown trees and yet navigates the roof for a higher extension to cast long shadows & bring light through the skylight. 

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

Terracotta tiles on the roof and MS structure are the primary elements of this project. Pandomo flooring is seen in the interior whereas the exterior is cladded with black Kadappa stone.

The exterior landscape becomes a part of the building as it is used as a “sculpture court” – a multipurpose lawn to showcase displays.

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

The peripheries also accommodate a pantry and outdoor seating which can be repurposed as a performance space or as seating for the audience that attends an event held in the AV Room. 

A soft threshold has been established through the playful arrangement of seating blocks that sits at the juxtaposition of the indoor and the outdoor.

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta

With such subtle design interventions throughout, it is attempted to only tweak the scale of the previous house into a space that accommodates more users at any given time, without losing the charm and essence of a home when one enters the space. 

Today, Arthshila acts as Santiniketan’s vital part of cultural activity since it acts as a public forum.It is that one project in which a redo of an age-old residence is transformed into a center that was born from a desire to fit into the soft rural landscape and pay homage to the site’s unique architecture. This is an exemplary rendition of a true “ Adaptation “.

Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
© Niveditaa Gupta


Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Timeline takshila


Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Plan - Site
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Plan - Ground floor
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Plan - 1st floor
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Plan - Roof


Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Section
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Isometric


Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Exploded
Arthshila – Cultural Adaptation Re-using Private Infrastructure
Gif - Exploded

Abin Design Studio
T +91 33 24666191
Abin Design Studio
62/2, Hindustan Park Rd, Golpark, Hindustan Park, Gariahat, Kolkata, West Bengal 700029, India