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Grant Project for a Pop-Up Library at the Serendipity Arts Festival

The Serendipity Arts Festival invites artists and creative practitioners to propose experimental interventions in the urban realm of the city of Panaji. This project was executed through this competition as a ‘non-library’ and was one of the four projects to receive the Serendipity Arts Festival Public Art Grant 2023. Every year, BookWorm foundation, a non-profit library for children, establishes a reading room in the dense canopy of the forest abutting the Mandovi river. Our proposal engages with this wonderful idea of reading a book in the forest creating a node – a light, minimal enclosure that can playfully house the library and other programming including small skits, readings and recitations, as well as evening performances. 

Designed as an intersection of a square and a circle, the pavilion engages with the notion of indiscipline, asymmetry and play with a meandering wall and a frame that lends itself to a multitude of programmatic engagements: theatre, workshops, story-telling sessions etc. A porous public container, the architecture of the space breaks away from the monotony of a white-box / black-box spatial constructs that enable display and performance. The structure attempts to dissolve the rigid boundaries between inside and outside; between architecture and landscape.

Image 01: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North. ©The Photo Architects
Image 02: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North-West. ©The Photo Architects
Image 03: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North -West showing the openings, finished plinth and the framework of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 04: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the South-East showing the openings and the framework of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 05: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the South showing the openings, finished plinth and the framework of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 06: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North at dusk. ©The Photo Architects
Image 07: An interior photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North-West showing the drapes, finished plinth and the framework of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 08: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the North-West at dusk. ©The Photo Architects
Image 09: An aerial image of the Children’s Pavilion at dusk. ©The Photo Architects
Image 10: An aerial image of the Children’s Pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 11: An aerial image of the Children’s Pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 12: An aerial image of the Children’s Pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 13: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the South-West showing the openings and the framework of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 14: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion showing the details of the framework. ©The Photo Architects
Image 15: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion from the West showing the openings of the pavilion. ©The Photo Architects
Image 16: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Ankit George
Image 17: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Ankit George
Image 18: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Ankit George
Image 19: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival.  ©Ankit George
Image 20: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Maanasi Hattangadi
Image 21: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Maanasi Hattangadi
Image 22: Photograph of the Children’s Pavilion being occupied during the Serendipity Arts Festival. ©Maanasi Hattangadi

Information

Project Type: Public Space

Client: Serendipity Arts Festival 2023 – Public Arts Project – Competition Winner

Pop-up Library by Bookworm Goa
Civil Contractor: Amirchand Pandit

Fabricator: Laxmi Metal Art 

Electrical Contractor: Arvind Gunani
Year of Initiation: 2023
Year of Completion: 2023
Location: Art Park, Promenade, Panaji, Goa

Design Team: Stuthi Mehta, Tharun CM, Rishiraj Sarkar, Isha Raut, Ruturaj Parikh
Built-Up Area: 98 Sq M
Status: Completed
Photographs: The Photo Architects, Ankit George, Maanasi Hattangadi

Drawings: Studio Matter

MATTER. 
architecture, design and curation  

PRACTICE

MATTER is an architecture, design and publishing studio based out of Goa. Our work aims to celebrate the diversity and richness of ideas and practices that are quintessentially Indian, and relate to challenges and opportunities that are presented by our landscape.

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

Matter offers architecture and design consultancy to private clients, civic organisations, government bodies and institutions. Our work recognises and appreciates beauty in simple objects and the true nature of materials. We strive to invoke the inherent magnificence of spaces and quietude of form. Our approach is centered on the idea that nothing lasts forever, nothing is complete and nothing is perfect. With attention to detail and focus on quality, our studio is generally involved in all aspects of work, sometimes much beyond our mandate to savour and enrich the process of making. We strive to achieve enduring ideas and resist images as each project takes its unique course and trajectory.

ASŌ, Next to St Anna Chapel, Salem, Salvador Do Mundo, Bardez, North Goa, Goa 403101

Ph: +91 (0) 832 674 1909
E:   think@matter.co.in, studio@matter.co.in
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