M.F. Husain, B.V. Doshi: "The great painter and the innovative architect have jointly created the Gufa. Each brings his own insights and interpretations"
"Gufa is an answer to questions about formal architecture and embodies, manifests, all my previous experiences of the power of the silent space."
The idea of providing bodily comfort and preserving art in an underground building was something Husain and I conceived.: My studio, Sangath, was the first manifestation of integrating space, light and structure. Gufa has been a further exploration through silence, fluidity and ambiguity. It delimits conventional notions of architecture, space and form.
Gufa is the form of a polyheaded tortoise poised half way between the earth and the sky: A long black cobra coiling around the multi-domed shining roof attempts to hold the tortoise to the ground. Thus setting off the ancient tension between them.
This incorporates my earlier experiences as well as further diffuses the barriers between technology and space, form, earth and sky, painting, sculpture and architecture.
The organically located supports inside recreate the feeling of being under a thick canopy, in a dense primeval forest.
A very sensuous experience which can only come from such voluptuous forms and spaces due to the ferrocement membrane
Bright shafts of light from the apertures in the roof punctuate this large, softly lit space
The hard surface of the roof suggests its resoluteness in protecting Husain's art against the elements as well as all external happenings
Gufa inside is an endless string of softly lit fluid spaces which betray neither a beginning nor an end.: It feels like a large dynamic space inducing constant movement.
