Cultural and Heritage Center Kerala

Abstract

The historic town of fort kochi has given us different styes of architecture blended with the local, different cultures, beaches and a beautiful backwater. In this small island you can find everything that defines the place varying from spices to extravagant edifices. The 10 lakh foreigners that fly into this port city enjoys this beauty but what this island lacks is ,the presence of a cultural centre to give that extravangant experience to tourists. A heritage surrounded site of 4.5 acre land was selected in the heart of fort kochi. Inorder to retain the historic atmosphere, construction for the future is less and adaptive reuse is more encouraged.On analysing the structures and how each built space has been adaptively reused ,a pattern was developed and as a continuationof that pattern , will give you the architecture for the future. The built space in this project includes a 1. museum 2. gallery 3. admin 4, performance space 5. accomodation 6. cafe Each Built space reflects a particular style of architecture that is not visible to the naked eye but visible to the one who knows the history of the town. The site zoning represents a circumscribed version of the different styles of architecture with the site at the centre overlooking these styles. Builts spaces are arranged on three different levels facing the wind direction so that each building gets optimum light and ventilation. The museum has 15 exhibits in the form of tableux and each piece has been alloted a 2 x 2 pedestal space. Right next to the museum is the Gallery that has space for one permanant exhibition and two temporary exhibition halls The idea of giving a performance space along with learning units was mainly introduced for foriegn tourists who fly in all the way from different countries to learn the different art forms and the accomodation was also added as a part of this. The cultural centre covers about 60% of the site and is a one of a kind structure that fulfills the needs of a historic town.