Weekend in and around Delhi - 02/03

The Taj Mahal is a very difficult building to write about, it comes with too much baggage so I'll let my photos do the talking.

 

 

 

Here's some photos of the mosque adjoining the Taj

 

 

... and a couple of the amazing for garden ... (next time I'd like to visit the garden on the other side of the river)..

Our next stop was the spectacular Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb. I've been wanting to see this building for years now and finally I made it here!

 

Here's a few photos of the most underrated Mughal wonder.

  

No visit to the Taj Mahal or for that matter to Agra is complete without seeing this jewel box like building.

Once you visit this tiny yet amazing building it's quiet obvious that Shah Jahan would never have been able to commission the Taj if this he had not seen this tomb.

 

  

On our way out of the city we halted at Akbar's tomb in the outskirts of Agra.
 

The tomb sits majestically in a huge garden full of Black Bucks

.... the exterior is quite intact ....

  

....but the interior plaster and paint work has sadly been lost due to years of neglect....

It would be amazing to see these gardens also restored properly like at Humayun's tomb.

 

Weekend in and around Delhi - 01/03

Since we had come all the way to Delhi to see our exhibition we decided to spend some time refreshing our memory on the classics of Indian architecture. Over the period of one and half days we visited some of the most important sites built by the Mughals in Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.

We started with my favorite building of our national capital - Humayun's  tomb...

After a quick stroll thru the complex and its amazing garden we headed out to Agra to wake up for a sunrise at the Taj Mahal.

Our design @ NGMA, Delhi

Ekta, Shivani, Shreshth and I had sent a entry to an open architectural design competition to design a new headquarters for the National Tax Department of India on a plot in the centre of our capital - New Delhi. The project was called the Rajswa Bhavan competition.

  Sadly we didn't win anything (..damn!!..) but that didnt stop us from making a quick trip to Delhi last weekend to see our entry displayed along with the other 50 odd entries from across the country at the temporary gallery in the National Gallery of Modern Art (close to India Gate).

Here's a few photos of the exhibition

 The above photo is of the winning entry.. It's very much like Delhi's most spectacular contemporary public building - the India Habitat Centre - but a bit too much of high-tech aesthetic for Lutyens Delhi!

 This entry by Inform (an architecture practice from Bangalore) was my favourite entry, but sadly the jury wasn't brave enough to acknowledge the merits of this extremely interesting project.

Here's another interesting entry from Bangalore by Mathew & Ghosh architects.

 Here's our entry.. 

 I guess we got too carried away with trying to achieve clarity in its plan and missed the train on breaking this institutions monstrous scale given its low scaled historic context.

The Haveli of Jaisalmer

For my last post from this amazing city in the middle of the desert I had saved her most impressive architectural marvels - the Patwon Ki Haveli of Jaisalmer.

The following photos are of different parts of this Haveli complex.

This is one of the most impressive buildings I have seen on this trip to Rajasthan - it's scale,

 it's materiality,

it's response to the harsh desert climate,

 and it's relation with the street - all in all it's just amazing.

It's not surprising why this building is till-date evoked in almost every discussion on 'Indian architecture'.