Excerpt: Meditation Centre, an architecture project by Playball Studio, features a conscious design of pure solid forms and symmetry, ensuring visual harmony. The centerpiece, a meditation hall, is designed like a modern cave-like space with arched openings, allowing for sensory connection with surrounding elements. A contemporary kund promotes the activation of all senses during meditation by allowing users to see, hear, and feel the element of water.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] A middle aged couple who are followers of Osho, wanted to start an Ashram with the intention of opening it up for like minded followers of Osho from all over the world. They had already chosen a site which was in the village of Kamrol, just outside of the city of Vadodara. It is a triangular flat parcel of land with its longer axis having the north – south orientation. It is accessed by a kachha road which also leads to the Vishwamitri river just a couple of metres away from the southern tip of the site.
The program was fairly straightforward – a centerpiece mediation hall, a dining facility, ten living quarters and an administration facility. After initial discussions with the client, a decision was taken to club the requirements into three major areas, meditation hall, guest centre and cottages. The client had a limited budget at their disposal and it took a lot of reduction of areas before concluding the optimum area required to satisfy their programmatic aspirations. Once that was established, it became evident that standard construction techniques had to be employed to keep the construction budget under control.
The raised meditation hall is envisaged as a modern day cave-like space with large arched openings on all four sides which will allow ample sensorial connection with the elements around it. The counter part of the hall is a contemporary take on kund, almost like a positive – negative diagram in section. The kund is accessed by a network of ramps and it will also act as the central rain water harvesting well. As the activation of all senses is important during the process of meditation, the kund will allow the users to see, hear and feel the element of water.
The guest centre is planned as a tight functional space with administration, library and dining facilities. The main feature of the guest centre is the elongated plinth with a three metre spanning cantilevered roof, which will provide large semi covered spaces for the spill over informal activities.
Two individual living quarters are clubbed together to make a cottage with a connected verandah. Every living quarter is designed in such a way that it is well connected with its surroundings, from the bedrooms to the open air shower areas. Every unit also gets an east facing skylight as it is important for the occupants to be able to witness the first rays of the rising sun.
A conscious design direction of pure solid forms and symmetry are constantly maintained in order to have a sense of visual harmony. These built forms will eventually be hidden behind / under the dense vegetation that is planned to take over the entire site.
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