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M+, Hong Kong, © Raj Rewal
Raj Rewal 拉傑．雷瓦爾
Model, Parliament Library (1989–2003), New Delhi, India 印度新德里國會圖書館（1989–2003）模型
1985
In 1991, Raj Rewal won a government competition to design a new Parliament Library in New Delhi, to be located adjacent to Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker’s colonial-era Parliament House, the seat of India’s government. Represented in this model, Rewal’s design quietly complements the axial planning and immense circular shape of its monumental 1927 predecessor, and was mostly completed between 1994 and 2002.
A low matrix of domes linked by corridors and interstitial courtyards, the library takes the form of a mandala, a symbolic Hindu and Buddhist representation of the universe. Set on a triangular site, its diagrammatic plan was organised around pools, vegetation, and courtyards that were meant to evoke openness, equality, and other democratic ideals, while its mandala pattern is broken in one corner to allow the surrounding landscape to seep in. Rewal developed a variety of geometries and structural systems for the building’s domes, which help organise and differentiate the functions of the library. Though they never rise above the height of the Parliament House (visible at one end of the model), the domes top dramatic interior spaces that extend below ground. More discreetly monumental than its neighbour, the library creates a foil to Parliament House’s Beaux-Arts grandeur by adapting forms derived from Indian spiritual cosmologies for the needs of a modern democracy.
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