A middle aged couple who are followers of Osho, wanted to start an Ashram which they intend to open for likeminded followers of Osho from all over the world. They had already chosen a site which was in the village of Kamrol, just outside of the city of Vadodara. It is a triangular flat parcel of land with its longer axis having the north – south orientation. It is accessed by a kachha road which also leads to the Vishwamitri river just a couple of metres away from the southern tip of the site.
The program was fairly straight forward – a centre piece mediation hall, a dining facility, ten living quarters and a reception facility. After initial discussions with the clients, a decision was taken to club the requirements into three major major areas, meditation hall, guest centre and cottages. The clients had a limited budget at their disposal and it took a lot of reduction of areas before concluding the optimum area required to satisfy their programmatic aspirations. Once that was established, it became evident that standard construction techniques had to be employed to keep the construction budget under control.
The raised meditation hall is envisaged as a modern day cave-like space with large arched openings on all four sides which will allow ample sensorial connect with the elements around it.
The counter part of the meditation hall is a contemporary take on kund, almost like a positive – negative diagram in section. The kund is accessed by a network of ramps and it will also act as the central rain water harvesting well. As the activation of all senses is important in the process of meditation, the kund will allow the users to see, hear and feel the element of water.
Two individual living quarters are clubbed together to make a cottage with a connected verandah. Every living quarter is designed in such a way that it is well connected with its surroundings, from the bedrooms to the open air shower areas. Every unit also gets an east facing sky light as it is important for the occupants to be able to get the first rays of the rising sun.
A conscious design direction of pure solid forms and symmetry are constantly maintained in order to have a sense of visual harmony. These built forms will eventually be hidden behind / under the dense vegetation that is planned to take over the entire site.
Location
Vadodara
Principal Architect
Ronak Gangdev
Project Management Consultant
Coreline
Year
2019-2022
Structural Consultant
Varun Suchak
Photographs
Ronak Gangdev
Status
Completed
MEP Consultant
WaterLily
Junior Architects
Karan Solanki
Amee Doshi
Naisargi Korat
