The parliament library

From street level and outside the Parliament House complex, not much of the Parliament Library building is visible to passersby. This is deliberate, because nothing should overshadow the legislature. To see the library building, one has to enter the complex.

Challenges and context
The several challenges Raj Rewal faced in this project — integrating the building with its surroundings, meeting all the practical requirements of the library, accommodating future growth and diversification, and also capturing the democratic essence of contemporary India — he met by designing something essentially quiet and inward-looking. In linking Parliament and Library, power and knowledge, Rewal drew from the relationship between king and guru.

He drew from the context: Lutyens’ New Delhi. So the building has a formal and symmetrical layout and structure.

He drew from traditional architecture: Fatehpur Sikri and the Raunakpur temples gave this building their meandering aspect, courtyards, and the pattern of a mandala with a central core. Courtyards also help the building stay cool, and the diffuse layout helped preserve many of the trees on the site.

He avoided the obvious: instead of patterning the Library on the circular Parliament House, he segmented it into a series of spaces linked by walkways.

‘Dome of light’
Around the core, which Rewal calls “a dome of light”, with ‘light’ meant literally and as a metaphor for enlightenment (see photo on the right), are spaces for a scholars’ library, the bureau of parliamentary studies, a 1,100-seat auditorium, reading rooms, meeting rooms, research and archival offices, a media centre and stacks for 3 million volumes.

To add to the symbolic load of the domed ‘core’ and emphasise its pan-Indian aspect, Rewal inlaid the floor with a giant Ashok Chakra, which is the central emblem on the national flag.

The semi-subterranean design has a practical as well as a political benefit: passive energy conservation is accomplished by cooling, greenery-filled courtyards, and a roof covered with 2 feet of soil planted with grass. Special glass limits heat and maximises light. The result is a well-lit and cool interior.

Slow, but right
Given the size, location and detail involved, construction was slow and difficult. The proposal was made in 1984, the design approved in 1991, and construction begun only three years later. The basement took two and a half years, because blasting was not permitted. The slow pace had one advantage: it gave the architect time for rethinking and the contractors time to get the details right.

Overall, therefore, Rewal managed to combined old and new successfully. Traditional building, courtyard to temple to palace, offered inspiration, as did the Lutyens-Baker style of New Delhi. Sandstone rubs shoulders with cement, stainless steel and structural glass. Architectural and cultural elements developed over centuries do not merely contribute to, they actually help make a 21st-century whole.