Parliament Library

Raj Rewal; Central Public Works Department; Karan Dalal; Shivani Dave

A limited competition for a new building for Indian Parliament's library was organised in 1989, and the winner announced in 1991 was architect Raj Rewal. Then speaker of the Lok Sabha, Shivraj V. Patil ensure that the architect will be permitted to realise the ideas he thought most appropriate. Over the next decades, the architect worked with successive governments and the Central Public Works Department, which was chosen for longstanding experience with projects of this scale and complexity.

!: The 'focal centre' dome in stainless steel structural lattice, to "reduce the heat loads of the building while providing views of the sky even when (visitors) are well below the surrounding ground level"

(Singh, Rahoul B., ‘Context and Innovation’): The external facade has red sandstone cladding and ... is reminiscent of the "geometrical patterns (sic!) that abound in the Indian landscape"

(Peter Devy, Architectural Review): "Rewal has pulled off a remarkable feat; he has not only related its building to its immediate context, ... but to deeper strains of Indian culture and history.

(AGK Menon, Frontline): Rewal explains that his aim in this project was to seek a low-key architectural expression signifying "sagacity, even spiritual elegance" rather than to "attempt to compete with the power of the Parliament"

There are five types of structural lattice, each designed to carry a cluster of shallow bubble domes made of lightweight concrete. Spanning five metres each (less in the auditorium), these domes are precast shell structures in fibro-cement, termed ‘fibre-reinforced concrete’ (FRC) in the engineering reports. (Compiled from Rangaswami and Rajguru.) The lattices carrying the bubble domes function as subsidiary structures, supported on circular ring beams along the edges of each space.

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Aga Khan Award for Architecture, shortlisted nominations and winning projects 1980-2016. South Asia/SAARC, 2016.

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The architect claims that reviews in international publications identify the project mostly as a ‘regionalist interpretation of modern architecture in India’, and praise it for not falling into the superficial rhetoric of 'post- and neo-modernisms' (sic)

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The site posed difficulties in terms of volumetric constraints imposed by Baker’s Parliament building: the height restriction, and the relation to an introvert circular form.

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The library viewed from an adjscent colonial era heritage structure, it relates to the parent building as ‘a guru relates to the king’, says Raj Rewal

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Whether or not this ‘rasa’ can be understood by the client or the users is difficult to know, but the users seem proud of the new Library. They see it as a ‘truly national product’ in contrast to the colonial legacy, claims the Aga Khan Award application

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Conceived within the Indian tradition, built in a contemporary idiom, the Parliament Library relates quietly to its context - the heart of Sir Edward Lutyens' urban design of Delhi. Its external facade, clad in red sandstone, is 'austere for aesthetic and functional reasons'. Internally, the defining theme is light, admitted through three courtyards and twelve domes. The domes are of various sizes and are constructed of lightweight fibre cement, bright steel lattice and tensile cables, structural glass and glass bricks. A roof garden provides a gathering space for scholars and parliamentarians in the winter and a thermal barrier in the summer.

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Administrative complex by Lutyens and Baker, location according to the Rajpath (King’s Way) running two kilometeres east to west with the residential palace and ministries on one end.

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The triangular site for the Library adjacent to the Parliament House.

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Concept development in relation to the geometry of Parliament House.

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Inspiration cum sources for the planning of the complex.

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Plans of Parliament Library at New Delhi

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Sections of Parliament Library at New Delhi

The design was expected to be apt for the 21st century, apart from detailed functional requirements while displaying an appropriate cultural identity and vigour, addressing and attempting to 'acknowledge categorically modern India', its failure and ability to create an architecture that is both culturally situated and situating'

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The glass dome on the Focal Centre has no subsidiary lattice structure as such; instead, a delicate open frame structure rests directly on the octagonal ring beam that runs along the edges of the space.

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