Raj Rewal Drawings 拉傑‧雷瓦爾作品繪圖

The Raj Rewal Drawings consists of 30 architectural drawings covering the following projects in New Delhi, India: Bhikaji Cama Bazaar (1965–2016); Hall of Nations (1970–1972); Nehru Memorial Pavilion (1971–1972); Asian Games Village (1980–1982); National Institute of Immunology (1983–1990); and Parliament Library (1989–2003). These six projects constitute a substantial body of Rewal’s work, including key national, housing, and institutional projects that can be considered milestones of post-independence Indian architecture.

The unrealised Bhikaji Cama Bazaar (1965–2016) in New Delhi, which was to form the commercial heart of a largescale, 15-hectare development with offices, shops, a hotel, cinema, museum, parking, and other facilities, represents Rewal’s early exploration of traditional Indian urban forms and typologies in a modern context, something he would continue to investigate throughout his career. Rewal’s Bazaar scheme aimed to satisfy the sizeable programmatic needs with a continuous structure that was broken into smaller sequences and courtyards for a more human scale. Hiding the required parking underground and in courtyards.

Four years later, Rewal won an even higher-profile commission, this time to design the Hall of Nations (1970–1972) exhibition complex. Commissioned by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the sprawling exhibition center was to be finished in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Indian independence in 1972. The building resulted from Rewal’s infatuation with space-frame construction that had developed while in London, while Rewal and engineer Mahendra Raj unusually constructed the complex’s space-frames using cast concrete rather than steel. Rewal designed a cluster of four monumental space-frame pavilions shaped like truncated pyramids, with three of them bracketing the much bigger centerpiece, which was the largest open-span concrete structure in the world.

Adjacent to the Hall of Nations, Rewal was concurrently commissioned to design the Nehru Memorial Pavilion (1971–1972), dedicated to India’s first prime minister, who had died in 1964. The low-lying, mound-like structure was inspired by stupas and yantras in terms of its symmetrical geometry and iconographic, circumambulatory design. Inside, its open, stepped interior of exposed concrete allowed light to filter through glass block reveals and into interlocking single and double-height spaces.

The project that arguably brought Rewal the most international recognition, however, was his Asian Games Village (1980–1982). His first built housing proposal, Rewal took cues from traditional Indian cities such as Jaisalmer by creating low-rise, high-density clusters of buildings that formed a variegated composition of courtyards arranged sequentially to form mohallas, or 'neighborhoods'. In order to efficiently create the desired diversity of configurations, the 700 units, including 500 flats, were distributed among around a half dozen cluster types that were repeated in varying arrangements.

Further building on Rewal’s ideas of urban clustering was the National Institute of Immunology (1983–1990). Expressing their concrete frame structures with grids of red sandstone aggregate infilled with the same material in pink, the campus’s buildings merge modern and Mughal vocabularies not only through their materials, forms, and details, but also their highly sophisticated spatial arrangements. The Parliament Library (1989–2003) references classical Hindu buildings like Adinatha Temple in Ranakpur and the Datia Palace in Madhya Pradesh, the Parliament Library’s plan is a mandala-like central core surrounded by courtyards symmetrically arranged within a square perimeter.

The Raj Rewal Drawings contains drawings, sketches and plans purchased in 2017 relating to the Hall of Nations, Nehru Pavilion, National Institute of Immunology, Parliament Library and Asian Games Village in Delhi, India, in addition to a 2017 donation by Raj Rewal of sketches and drawings relating to Hall of Nations and Bhikaji Cama Bazaar in New Delhi, India. In the case of Bhikaji Cama Bazaar, as no originals existed, reproductions were taken as they contributed substantially to understanding the design in question.

Arranged chronologically by project.

Several of the items acquired by M+ are copies, presumably of original drawings that remain in the possession of Raj Rewal.