smruti and samvaad
memorial landscape
Hyderabad
4000 sqm
competition entry
2021
design team:
project architects:
Arjun Sharma, Gaurav Shetty, Hemali Samant
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The Spoorthi Sthalam Memorial Site is imagined as a place that plays three important roles in the city.
The First Role It Will Play Will Be That Of Remembrance. The memorial will serve as a biographical page that will tell the story of the late S. Jaipal Reddy. The act and the process of Remembrance should be such that all who come to pay their respects here may also understand the person and learn from his inspiring example. (as opposed to idolising him ).
The Second Role Will Be That Of Posterity. Here we hope that the memorial will also exemplify the finest qualities of the S. Jaipal Reddy’s Political life and a manifestation of his ideals, as we understand it. That it will present to the public what clean, open and transparent politics can be like.
The Third Role Is That Of Enrichment Of The City Public Spaces. Taking forward the idea of a leader who worked for the people, The memorial site will offer, to the city, a place for succor. The site must be an urban public realm where people can come, spend some time and even engage with other people. This memorial should be universally accessible to all (speaking to the fact that S. Reddy suffered from, and conquered, Polio). At the same time it should show sensitivity to water and lake around it.
A: The Memorial as Plaza and Saving Water
The memorial is envisioned as a plaza. To save water, the site will be entirely paved with water percolating cobbles. This may increase the capital investment, but it will in the long run, save all the water required for lawns. In that sense, although there is ample planting in the design the the space is inherently without any lawns, thus saving between 50’000 to 75’000 liters of water every week.
B: The Memorial as an Urban Public Realm
The Site should perform as an open Urban Public Realm, For this reason the planting fronting the road edge is transplanted to either side of the site. This allows the plaza to open up to the road. A 3mts wide footpath connecting two ends of the site is installed, hopefully other developments along the Necklace roads will also provide for a footpath along their site, and continue this pedestrian movement.
C: The Anchors : The Smruti Sthal and the Samvaad Sthal
The Layout is anchored on two sides by ‘the Smruti Sthal’ installation on one side and ‘The Samvaad Sthal’ installation towards the center of the site.
Smruti is a Sanskrit word for “That Which is Remembered”. To take this experience further than mere idolatry, the Smruti Sthal is designed as a large rock that signifies S. Jaipal Reddy’s life. The Rock will be cut from a local Granite, that Hyderabad Geology is so well known for, thus also suggesting the idea of “the son of the soil”. In front of the rock will rock steps with a carved out uruli, for water and flower offerings.
On either side of the Rock will be 7 foot tall ‘edict’ walls with biographical engravings about S. Jaipal Reddy’s life. The space between the walls also serve to somewhat formalise, and give some deference to, the access to the Rock
Samvaad is a word for Dialogue and Conversation. The idea of dialogue is manifested as an amphitheater. However this amphitheater will perform as a barrier free amphitheater. All sides of this stepped seating spiral down from top to bottom level at a slope of 1:50. 1:50 is a comfortable walk down and also allows one to sit across it. Thus anyone can access the steps of the amphitheater, and partake in the conversation. The Amphitheater is square shaped, not defining any ‘head of table positions’ by virtue of its shape.
The Samvad and the Smruti Sthal, are connected by a band of flooring that will be slightly different from the rest of the plaza. This flooring will have more curated quotes, and notes about S. Jaipal Reddy’s life.
D: The Understorey and seats
The Understorey and seats serve to punctuate the open space and suggest how the spaces can be used. These are located in conjunction with the trees that also serve the same purpose. The placement of the understorey and seats also accentuate the linear quality of the space, strengthening the connection between the Smruti Sthal and the Samvaad Sthal.
E: Trees Above
Shadows are fundamental to all Urban Public Realms in India. The trees are planted in a grid already established by the existing peepal trees on site. Majority of the plaza is imagined to be in shade almost all of the time, to suit the Indian climate.
F: Planting and lake
All the trees and understorey will be native plants and locally sourced. There will be enough variety for the bird and bees to make a home here. The Lake edge should also be planted with a set that is sensitive to the lake edge ecology of the Hussain Sagar lake.
Lake edge planting to be part of the larger Littoral ecosystem of the Hussain Sagar Lake, with a progression of ecologically native flora relative to the water depth.
The central plaza is dotted with seasonal flowering trees. The fragrant flowers litter the ground as the visitors walk under dense shade towards the Smruti Sthal. The Smruti Sthal itself has a backdrop of pink flowering trees
The understorey is imagined to be filled with plants which require minimum maintenance . White and Pink flowering trees and shrubs add distinctive value to the entire memorial plaza .
image credits:
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