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.
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.