Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
The Raj Sabhagruh is an ambitious complex, housing a 5,000-seater auditorium, classrooms, discourse rooms, a 1,000-square-meter museum, a gift shop and a 300-seater meditation hall, stacked within a 40-meter-tall building at the apex of a crescent-shaped 60-meter hillock.
Awarded to Serie Architects in 2012 through an international invitational competition, the design of Raj Sabhgruh draws its ideas from the Jain Samavasaran, a fabled temple, composed of a tapering ascension of platforms, housing humans, animals and demi-gods in divine communion with a ‘Tirthankara’, an enlightened being, seated at the apex of this formation. This mythical building represents the aggregation of knowledge—through discourse and learning—as building blocks, to bring devotees ever closer to enlightenment. This concept is reified in all Jain temples, where the aggregation of self-similar elements creates lofty shikaras—curved, pyramid-like forms that cap the sanctum sanctorium at the heart of the temple and appear to reach for the sky. Serie’s design consists of 13 stacked rooms, rotated 45 degrees as they stack upwards. This rotational stacking gives rise to an interlocking sheer wall structure made up of thin, gently curved concrete sheer walls, perforated to let in natural light. This lean architecture, combining structure as façade and space definers, aims to reduce the material used for the entire building. Programmatically, one ascends upwards from spaces of the discourse hall at the ground level, to experiential learning within the museum at the second level, deep study within classrooms at the third and finally to introspection within the meditation hall at the apex tier. A journey from speech to silence.
A circular 5,000-seater auditorium anchors the plan at the ground level, accessed by a large circumambulating foyer with an array of 8 entrances radially placed at the cardinal and intermediate directions. Four curving and intersecting concrete arches span across the 54-meter diameter and 20-meter-tall concrete drum to create a column-free interior. The resultant square formed at the intersection of the arches forms the structural seat of the meditation hall placed above the auditorium.
An array of concentric, timber, acoustic baffles radiate outward from the centre of the drum ceiling, recalling the radial patterns of the intricately carved sky-domes found within the ceilings of the Maha-mandapa, the primary gathering halls of ancient Jain temples. The circular auditorium with the stage for the Guru, placed within its eastern quadrant draws the audience close to him in intimate dialogue and instruction. A suspended balcony provides clear sight lines to the stage while a flat auditorium floor allows for a flexible space where various programs and events can unfold.
The 300-seater meditation hall, placed above the auditorium rises 20 meters to cap the building composition as a glowing lantern, with over 1000 glowing pins of light etched into its marbled surface, visible afar from the streets of Dharampur. Necessitated as a completely dark interior, a double structure of space frames holds up the exterior volume and interior space independently.
An array of glowing, white acoustic panels rotates gradually within the interior of the hall, drawing the eye and mind upwards to deep contemplation.
The exterior concrete sheer walls are clad in 50mm thick, hand-chiseled, rough-cut Makrana white marble bricks. These bricks, salvaged from discarded marble slabs, are deliberately small to accommodate the curvature of the sheer walls, adding a fine texture to the facade. Utilizing discarded marble enhances the lean architectural approach of Serie's design and reduces construction costs. Over 800,000 bricks were hand-laid over the 36 faces of the building's volumes over two years, reflecting the same materiality as the monolithic trabeated structure of the Jain temple completed a few years prior to the Raj Sabhagruh. The rough cuts expose the crystalline structure of the marble, which refracts and disperses light in numerous luminous tones and hues across the building's surfaces, changing with the sun's movement throughout the day. Deep-set circular windows bring daylight deep into the interior, adding a layer of visual depth and animating the monolithic form.
Christopher Lee and Kapil Gupta, Principals at Serie Architects, explain, “We worked very closely with Ashram and the Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, listening to their needs and aspirations, responding with architectural ideas, and discursively refining them over a two-year long design period. We tested several iterations exploring typologies of sacred form. There was a deep desire to find an architecture that was contemporary, memorable and timeless, that could serve as a signifier for a young, growing Ashram”.
The architecture that emerges can accommodate a wide range of uses and continues to evolve with the spiritual mission it serves. It acts as a backdrop where Ashram life can unfold, anchoring it as a place for the acquisition of knowledge and inner spiritual experience.
The building sits on an expansive plinth, a large plaza radiating outwards from its centre, connecting it to a large dining hall to the north, a 5000-seater open-air amphitheatre to the west and the Jain temple to the south. The plaza is laid out in cool, concentric white marble rings that reflect away the heat of the summer sun and is dotted with rows of shade-giving ficus trees. The plaza enables the social life of the Ashram to unfold over it, as thousands of devotees and visitors move from building to building through their daily rhythms of discourse, study and meditation, punctuated by meals and sessions of rest. The gardens that are laid out to the West of the building, on either side of the amphitheatre, were designed by local landscape architects, Ficus Design and contain a sacred grove of 108 ancient species of sacred trees that cascade down the slopes of the hill. Shaded pathways through the grove allow residents to move between their homes and plazas.
