THEATRUM MUNDI
A school project in the 6th semester requiring us to design an auditorium space for a specific performance art-form. The choice I made was for this was Urdu poetry.
The design took inspiration from the dichotomy of hard and soft elements present in the art of Urdu poetry, hard being the structure and the meter that establishes the flow and soft being the content and the imagery itself.
This hard/soft juxtaposition was also echoed from the site site with the presence of water constantly crashing against the hard jagged rocy cliff-face.
Above: The plan as above can be read from left to right. At the entrance is a hard-paved public plaza. As one proceed the floor dips in fluidly creating auditorium seat. The auditorium works from both front and back directions, one being an outdoor setup and other being indoor. At the edge is a soft grassy landscape overlooking the sea. Attached to it is a deep jetty that extends out to the water and allows the visitors to get closer to the horizon.
Above: The design comprises of skeletal members put along the entire length at intervals. This skeleton is inspired from that of a whale and this translates the gaps in between translate as the metric system in poetry. Suspended from this system is a series of fluid curvilinear canopies that provide shade and diffuse the light also translated as the soft and descriptive imagery of the poetry.
Below: Process work
