India

The May edition of Domus India takes a stand on the unfortunate demolition of the iconic structures of the Hall of Nations and Hall of Industries at Pragati Maidan in the capital city of New Delhi, to make way for a proposed ‘state-of-the-art convention centre’.

The buildings, designed and engineered by stalwarts Raj Rewal and Mahendra Raj respectively, were not simply architectural creations but symbols of modern India, representing a history of artistic imagination, engineering prowess, and a cultural ethos of taking the world with us in our own national progress. In the ‘Confetti’ section, the magazine focuses on three recent exhibitions – In the City, a Library, a photographic peek into the heart of the People’s Free Reading Room and Library, to see how time ages that heart, and how it works a kind of elegiac magic on the pages of rare books; a display of Odisha’s famed Pattachitra folk paintings by artist Bijay Parida; and a solo exhibition of contemporary art by Shilpa Gupta titled Drawing in the Dark, held in Brussels, alluding to clandestine movements and practices in borderlands, and to the metaphor of the line that links several of her works. Complying with the parameters of energy conservation and eco-friendliness, combined with progressively innovative devices, a deft use of materials, and meticulous detailing, the magazine features a spread on the site of a technology-driven firm located in the catchment area of Thiruvananthapuram in south India as an exemplification of ‘green design’. It takes a closer look at questions involving architectural language in global imagery; sustainability as defined by rating systems; and the need and responsibility to resonate with the location and context of the structure.


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