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Architects: Studio Saar
- Area: 20100 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Edmund Sumner, Ankit Jain, Ananya Singhal
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Lead Architect: Ananya Singhal
Text description provided by the architects. During the design process, we worked closely with our client, Dharohar, a not-for-profit organization, to bring to life the vision of Third Space - the first learning and cultural center in Udaipur. Our aim was to create an accessible, open, and inclusive place beyond the home or school.
Third Space was designed as a destination that could foster a generation of life-long learners, for people to come together to create meaningful connections, gain new experiences, or pursue long-loved hobbies. A major challenge was the diversity of uses; it is not just a museum, or a makers space, a cinema or a performance space, or a climbing wall, it is all of those and more. To make this work, we laid the major elements around a pinwheel of cloisters that surround a central courtyard.
The biggest challenge was to bring multiple activities into a single coherent space. To overcome this, we decided to place the main community activities in the central courtyard. In-between spaces, such as the entrance, corridors, and courtyards, often forgotten in building design, were designed to serve as flexible spaces for performances and community gatherings, bringing all activities together under one roof.
Lastly, and in order to ensure that Third Space accommodates a multitude of uses in the best possible way, We used the ‘patterns’ of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, which helped bring order to the whole experience.
For the construction of Third Space, we focused on using local materials that respond well to the region’s harsh climatic conditions and help reduce the carbon embodied by transport. The masonry walls were formed by waste marble rubble and lime mortar from nearby mines, while marble dust, a waste product from the marble mining and processing industry, was used in the concrete as a cement replacement, resulting in a light-colored concrete that reflects the sun better and contributes to the natural ventilation of the building.
Focused on reducing waste, we reused the marble cut-offs from the façade screens as flooring, and the metal offcuts were refashioned into chainmail for doors and partitions. The white marble screens used are locally produced, as are the ceramic tiles that are used in broken form to form the roofs. The roof features a woven bamboo canopy which provides solar shading, where bamboo is chosen as a material in lieu of long-life aluminium shades, resulting in a low-carbon solution that is cost-effective and biodegradable as opposed to something more robust, but damaging in the long term.
One of the key learnings from Third Space for us was how to work with all the collaborators. We learned and developed so many elements together. From the canopy of the building, which was co-created with Webb Yates Engineers, to the façade fixing, co-created with Sarnar, and the marble screens, that had to be tested for earthquake resistance, the list could go on!
In terms of the building design, we drew inspiration from the architectural heritage of Rajasthan and reimagined it in a contemporary form, bringing multiple uses into a single coherent building. A key aspect of Third Space is the central courtyard inspired by the regional building heritage of havelis (traditional residencies) around which key spaces are organized. Serving as a flexible exhibition, performance, and meeting space, the courtyard has all the center’s circulation around it, providing clear routes to all the learning and activity spaces.
At the entrance of the building, a visitor is presented with the ‘Baori’, inspired by the step wells found in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The vast open-air public space consists of seemingly random cubes forming steps to run and jump from, to sit and relax on.
