Maharani Gayathri Devi Puravi Riding Academy Mysore

Year
2018

Project team
Kabir Sahni, Chhavi Gupta, Chinglemba Chingtham

Duality.
A concept of contrast and conflict. It renders an air of shearing and tension where two ends of the spectrum try to dual each other. It formulates this ambience of complexity and distortion that tends to a feeling of unrest. Black and white. Dark and light. Fast and heavy. Harsh and soft. All duals emitting so much clash and contrast.

Amongst the different forms of duality there are few that manage to capture a different picture where duality paints itself as harmonious. The horse displays this strength and mass in its physique and power but at same time can evoke grace, speed and lightness. The ambivalence of lightness and strength feels so synergetic that its duality feels more like a coalescence. Instead of juxtaposing one another, they form this covalent bond where speed is complimented by strength and strength is glorified by speed. They don’t stand separate and their union is experienced in the form of magnificence. Their synergy is what makes horses truly beautiful. Every moment emanates the adrenaline gushing through the veins and the poetic and feral gliding of the mane.

The Puravi Riding Academy is built to observe, nurture and experience this synergetic duality. The experience of the place is built on the coalescence of air and earth, mass and tenderness, strings and percussion, the idyllic and ethereal. The visual, tactile and kinetic experiences of the academy will mimic the harmonious ambivalence of the austerity and strength of stables and the subliminal elegance and feral glory of the arena. The architecture will embody that synergetic duality through everything, ranging from space to material to users to flora and fauna.

Stables for Steeds and Sapiens.
The academy primarily comprises the arena and the stable. The former is a symbol of adrenaline and feral experience. The latter, the stable, is an epitome of austerity and ethereal comforts. The structure, and modest collaboration of material and engineering represents honesty in design and articulation. It allows the truth in its materials to be seen and touched. The engineering overcomes the need for paraphernalia and focuses on the requirements and comforts of its dwellers. The imagery of the pitched roof restores an inner tranquility that is reminiscent of the houses we once drew as kids. Simple, clear, and distinctive in its surrounding, yet able to blend with the expanse of the landscape and canvas. Like its dweller, the stable manages to imbibe the synergetic duality where the strength, modesty and earthiness of the exterior converses with the warmth and vitality of its interiors. A conversation of the raw and the delicate. The stable for steeds, people and conversation is a translation of the music for strings, percussion and celesta the looks at a universal language for all its users. Instead of winding people in complexity of design and an abundance of paraphernalia, we look to house them as steeds and incept an intimacy with the site, the landscape, the climate and all other feral residents. We let them experience the earthiness of the site, the truth of materials and the modesty of engineering and let those strike and complexity of emotion rather than just visuals.

The east (puravi) wind is symbolic of the end of all falsities and we deconstruct the architecture to its modest, honest and sincere articulation and enable a feeling of unclutter and comfort.