A Symbol of Cultural Exchange
Project: The India Pavilion at Domaine de Boisbuchet, France
The India Pavilion at Domaine de Boisbuchet, France
Sourabh Gupta’s inspiring visits of Domaine de Boisbuchet laid the foundation stone for a mutual sympathy and respect that developed into a beautiful friendship. In 2017, this brought Alexander von Vegesack to New Delhi and a year later a workshop with The Design Village’s teachers and students to our place in France. The Design Village for us, is the most intelligent and sensitive translation of Boisbuchet’s educational project into a proper school in an urban context. Both institutions, Boisbuchet and The Design Village, have achieved to re- animate abandoned places with a similar humanistic, cultural mission in mind: understanding and exploring design’s potential as a holistic tool for the education of applied creativity in the most sustainable sense. We are sharing the respect for people, for history and for the environment as the most important elements of any forward- looking innovation.
Alexander’s sojourn in India started with the most intense impressions of New Delhi’s colourful and vibrant life, of TDV’s own powerful atmosphere and of a heartwarming welcome in the architect’s family and his teams in the school and at Archohm. In return, Boisbuchet welcomed the Indian students in just the opposite conditions: at the end of December when all our students and most of our staff were gone and the place was almost empty, rainy and very cold. In fact, heating had to be improvised and day after day the construction material for the students’ ambitious project just did not arrive! However, that was precisely where Boisbuchet lived up to its reputation for real life experiences in problem- solving and teamwork. After collective cooking and the students’ first good sleep in shared rooms – far from any human noise other than their own – we saw enthusiasm, engagement and community growing by the hour. What a pleasure we took in reflecting together with the students design history along with the pieces of our collection, to use our meals for common discussions of work and life, and to constantly
exchange ideas in order to find solutions in the practical task of realising a new building for Boisbuchet’s campus!
Today this pavilion is still a work- in- progress and allows TDV’s following students to fine- tune the building for its final purpose as an agora in dialogue with nature. The structure already beautifully integrates into the fabric of Boisbuchet’s site and respectfully embraces Markus Heinsdorff’s existing design for a refuge’s shelter. It creates a platform for public communication that celebrates the original concept as a symbol for humanity – just as architecture’s principal assignment, per se, is civilised protection. At the same time, the pavilion refers to the historical red bricks in the close- by walls of our vegetable garden and barn while its layout suggests a meandering topography in harmony with the spiral motif of Boisbuchet’s 19th century park.
Whatever this project one day might be called – our
Agora or the Indian Pavilion, it will testify the importance of cultural exchange and symbolise the necessity of views from the outside as reflection and reasoning in order to readjust and revitalise our values. Deeply thankful for this contribution to Boisbuchet’s significance and for our encounter with the Design Village and its population, we are looking forward to the future outcomes of this institutional as much as personal friendship and wish the Design Village a steadily growing community of inspired alumni.
Factfile
Design Team: Sourabh Gupta, Mridu Sahai, Gopender Pratap Singh,
Leena R Gupta, Mayank Gupta, The Design Village