Anti-Monument
- Place as Protest set amidst the ruins of Chikkajala Fort
Studio:
Architecture Design
7th Semester, 2021
Studio Mentors:
Dinesh Rao
Suman Paul
Bikram Chakrabarty
Hiranmayee Shankavaram
Project Description:
A library as a place to come together designed for a community disconnected from the fort and on its path to imminent gentrification
PLAY- THE FORT IS SANDWICHED BETWEEN A VILLAGE AND A MCDONALDS
On the a site somewhere between Devanahalli and Bangalore sits Chikkajala fort (a serai, a temple complex, a home) built as much out of stone as it is of class divide.
The fort went from standing like a sculpture in a vast expanse of argricultural land owned by a semi-royal to being a witness to imminent gentrification. However, this piece of high culture and exclusion did not exist without protest- the Banyan tree, the Highway, the community have all seeped into its cracks and demanded their space.
Road eating the Fort
2004
2010
2012
2017
First Sign of Protest- Nature breaking into the monument
The AntiMonument attempts not to create a negative but to continue the narrative started by the parasitic Banyan tree. It critiques our approach of viewing historical artefacts as neutral images to be preserved and not the symbols of oppression and exclusion that they might have been. The functions now held amidst this pillared structure has to serve a community that might soon fall prey to gentrification.
The Library serves as a mixer of people to empower the public. The anganwadi (daycare) serves as a safe space for children beyond the shackles of class protected by the eyes of the public space. The AntiMonument does not destroy the fort but heals it and in doing so appropriates its experience.
Library as a Mixer
The New Entrance is the Abstracted Negative of the Broken Fort Wall
Mud from the site is used in the construction of the fort wall. The materials for the wall are stabilized mud wall strengthened by I- sections that support the ramp leading to the terraces of the fort.
Old Fort Wall
Ramp leading upto the FF
Sit-out
Library- New Structure
Old structure
Section cutting through Kund
Section cutting through Ramp
McDonald's is a symbol of Gentrification
Fort vs Village vs Mall
colonial era
the people from the village cannot afford McDonald's, so who are the Golden Arches for?
pre-colonial
Ground Floor Plan -and Questions surrounding heritage
How Does Protest Look?
The construction of the new respects the old construction as a lineage of craft and trade separate from the symbol of unbalanced power that was the fort
.
Protest, here, is in many forms- in making a public space out of private property, resisting the sway of appeasing the gentrified crowd like the McDonalds and in continuing the narrative of opposition.