Photo © MIT Public Art Collection

National Crafts Museum

The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum

Description

The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum commonly known as National Crafts Museum in New Delhi is one of the largest crafts museums in India designed by Charles Correa between 1975 and 1990. A result of the nation-building process post-independence - Emergence of India as a ‘crafts nation`, rooting the traditions and cultural heritage of a nation that also had modern aspirations. This was also the result of the leadership of powerful women like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Pupul Jayakar, who with others helped forge the idea of India as a crafts nation even as they made possible new roles for women within the fields of crafts that were previously male-dominated.

Commissioned, 1975

Completed, 1990

The area was envisaged as an ethnographic space where craftsmen from various parts of India would come to work towards the preservation of various traditional arts and crafts.

Addition, 2014

Invited by the Chairperson of the National Crafts Museum (NCM) in Delhi to transform its dusty and damp premises into a revitalized space, the brief for Studio Lotus required a redesign of the Museum Shop, attached Café, and courtyard sections, all of which were in a state of disrepair.

Factoids

2014- Café Lota is a natural extension of the Museum shop and is set in the negative space created by the boundary wall and the museum shop designed by Studio Lotus, Delhi.

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#Galleries & Art Spaces

#Cultural Landmark

#Art

#Craft and Folk Art Museum

#india

#delhi

Timeline

1990

2014

current

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current Images

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The museum showcases the local and national identity of crafts, that has been elaborated through architecture spaces, materials and other elements.

Apart from the permanent galleries there are two temporary galleries in the Museum.

The stepping down of platforms and the actual use of steps to define both functions and edges of spaces echo the ghats of Varanasi and the Sarkej in Ahmadabad.

The play of light and shadow in the passages

The crafts museum is organized around a central pathway, revealing a sequence of spaces along the pedestrian spine.

The rare and finest specimens of traditional Indian handicrafts and handlooms are preserved with the objective that these would serve as source material for the revival, reproduction and development of Indian crafts.

Museum has a diverse and rare range of exquisite display of stone and wood carvings on the doors, windows, lintels, posts of the museum building

Court Craft Gallery features objects of exquisite craftsmanship and precious materials that were created for palaces of the erstwhile nobility in India.

The Folk and Tribal Craft gallery displays a diverse selection of paintings, sculptures from the folk and tribal traditions of India.

The museum has a village complex which was formerly known as “Rural India Complex

A wayside shrine along the street

The complex explores the idea of puzzle box and use the platform of varying levels to articulate space.

The rural ambience and serene atmosphere is relaxing and rejuvenating to anyone who visit from the rush hours of the city.

The Folk and Tribal Craft gallery displays a diverse selection of paintings, sculptures and other daily objects from the folk and tribal traditions of India.

The lively paintings, intricate embroideries, abundant textiles and animated sculptures made from dark clay, smooth stone and rich wood all reflect various aspects of local culture.

Bhuta Sculpture Gallery features a unique collection of sculptures of the Bhuta cult of coastal Karnataka.

Folk and Tribal paintings are sprawled on the wall canvas in the passages.

The museum is also home to a carefully recreated village complex typical of rural India.

The museum is aimed at housing objects of antiquity and curiosity with indigenous origin.

current Drawings and documents

7 Documents,Show less

Media report from 'A View from Delhi' from September-October Issue, 1991

'Indian Intricacy', by Robert Powell, The Architectural Review, London - August 1995, pg. 52-55

Plan of National Crafts Museum

Detailed section of National Craft Museum

Plan of National Crafts Museum

2014 - Addition

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2014 - Addition - Images

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The overall idea concept in the renovation was to retain the use of humble material in building the framework and functional aspects and using craft to elevate the spirit of the spaces.

The building openings have been reconfigured to naturally connect it to the landscape around.

Negative spaces are filled with plants to create a light and airy yet shaded enclosure that makes full use of the beautiful trees and painted walls that surround the eatery.

A lightweight bamboo trellis of varying density brings dappled light into the space through the day.

Modular display systems spanning tall vertical surfaces in some places are effective to present the varying nature of craft objects and textiles.

The walls serve as a canvas for either storytelling through craft or for merchandise.

The spaces use a tight palette of local sandstones, local timber.

Mild-steel and sand plastered walls create a monolithic backdrop for the crafted objects and an earthy setting that ties all the spaces together.

1990 - Completed

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1990 - Completed - Images

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The building is human-scaled, unpretentious and modest representing the vernacular architecture of India

The huts consist of a series of structures around a central courtyard.

The transition from one condition to the other is through a precise and clearly defined boundary, the front door.

The units are haphazardly clustered into something approaching a village.

The buildings possess not only an extraordinary beauty of proportion, materials, but they also project with astonishing force, polemic ideas about ourselves and our relationship with the Non-manifest World.

A continuous pedestrian spine running through the heart of the museum – a metaphor for the Indian street, taking the visitor from village to temple to palace.

The transition of Indian modernity from the intimate space of the home to the urban realm.

Each of these spaces was given a particular meaning in the way it made relationships to the street and to the home.

Capturing the essence of time and playing out all its dimensions in a physical environment, the msueum truly lives up to its purpose.

Imagination of a hierarchy of spaces with gradually increasing levels of publicness has been conceived as uniquely 'Indian'.

Mud and brick masonry has been used in the construction of the structures.

A complex interaction adds layers of metaphorical and metaphysical dimensions to architecture.

The evolving geometric patterns helps create the hierarchy within the museum.

The surrounding walls and the seating are clad with mud..

Locally available wooden bamboo sticks have been used to construct the entire space frame.

The ‘pergola’ structures along with the various cutouts employed in the design allow for a narrative of patterns of light and shadow.

The flow of spaces and functions is immaculate and well constructed.

The artworks on the wall, seating arrangements, and other interior elements have been carefully selected to depict the innateness of rural living and its cultural richness.

Street as a metaphor

The low-lying Museum building is a reflection vernacular architecture and fine craftsmanship.

The interplay of natural and ambient light, shadow, and color of the material palette portray visual poetry.

The whole museum is conceived after the timeless world of the Indian village where otherwise incompatible crafts exist side by side.

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