Time went on, and the family's commitment towards the art community in the city was fortified. In 2021, over many conversations they resolved themselves to setting up a Foundation that would be in service of not just the artist community in Vadodara, but the Baroda Faculty of Arts in perpetuity.
The land chosen for this undeniably significant undertaking is in the Ampad area of Vadodara. Spread over approximately 37,600 sq. mt. 10.4 kilometres from the ring road - it is in close proximity to the Mumbai-Delhi Highway. Located within the ravines of the Mahiriver, it is a land characterised by contours formed by the flow of the water. In close proximity to Udaan - it is situated in an area that is fast growing. Untouched, the land is home to a range of shrubs, grasses, trees, and ground cover that feature in a forest typology. The land as a result of its features, and contours became an added lens by which to govern and evaluate the design of the building such as this; a place of fortitude and resilience.
This is perhaps one of the most ambitious projects that the studio has undertaken; uncharted waters. This has meant, at each stage, setting processes that allow us to inform ourselves, and undertaking conversations with stakeholders whose contributions have continued to prime the design process.
The primary intent of the space has been defined as such to create a space that would provide incentives, and create opportunities for widespread engagement with the arts using narratives from Vadodara's visual arts
oeuvre.
With this in mind, the beginning conversations have focused on the various definitions, and approaches to the museum - a postmodern temple perhaps; a trojan horse for free thinking, discourse, and empathy, and certainly a space that is able to provoke its visitors, and transcend time. This exercise also became the beginnings of understanding the many lives of the museum, and its usage.
We have taken the many opportunities that this process has offered to understand museums globally, study adjacencies, programs, scales, and how they presented themselves; it has allowed us to assess, and understand activation possibilities in spaces such as these.
Global museums were studied to understand adjacencies, programs, scales, and how they presented themselves. This process also allowed us the opportunity to assess, and understand activation possibilities in spaces such as these. The process of design has also been informed by the cultural cues offered by the Architecture and Art of Vadodara.
While this Foundation is still in the making its program and form having taken nearly 3 years to arrive at - when completed, it is poised to become one of the most significant social and cultural institutions
in Vadodara, but also nationally.
certainly
