GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS OF PARLIAMENT HOUSE & PRESIDENT’S HOUSE – NEW DELHI (INDIA) Sansad Bhavan is the house of the Parliament of India, located in New Delhi (India). History – Originally called the House of Parliament, it was designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker in 1912-1913 and construction began in 1921. The opening ceremony of the Parliament House, then called the Central Legislative Assembly, was performed on 18 January 1927 by Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India. The third session of Central Legislative Assembly was held in this house on 19 January 1927. The Parliament Museum, opened in 2006, stands next to the Parliament House. Building – The shape is circular, which is based on the Ashoka Chakra. Separate halls were constructed for the sessions of the Chamber of Princes, the State Council, and the Central Legislative Assembly. The building is surrounded by large gardens and the perimeter is fenced off by sandstone railings (jali) modeled after the Great Stupa of Sanchi. Central Hall – The Central Hall of the Parliament is designed to be circular in shape. The dome is 98 ft. (29.87 metres) in diameter and is believed that it is one of the most magnificent domes in the world. The Central Hall is a place of historical importance in India for two reasons: The transfer of colonial power to the Provisional Government under Nehru in 1947 and the framing of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly took place in this very hall. Originally, the Central Hall was used as the Library of the erstwhile Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of States until 1946, when it was converted and refurnished into the Constituent Assembly Hall. The Constituent Assembly met there from December 9, 1946 to November 26, 1949 to draft the constitution. At present, the Central Hall is used for holding Joint Sittings of the two Houses. At the commencement of the first session after each General Election to Lok Sabha and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the President addresses both the Houses of Parliament assembled together in the Central Hall. When the Houses are in session, the Central Hall is used by Members for informal discussions among themselves. Central Hall is also used for special occasions when the Members of Parliament are addressed by distinguished Heads of States of other countries. The Hall is also equipped with Simultaneous Interpretation System. Rashtrapati Bhavan, (Presidential Residence) is the official home of the President of India, located in New Delhi, India. It may refer to only the mansion (the 340-room main building) that has the Presidents official residence, halls, guest rooms and offices; it may also refer to the entire 130 hectare (320 acre) President Estate that additionally includes huge presidential gardens (Mughal Gardens), large open spaces, residences of bodyguards and staff, stables, other offices and utilities within its perimeter walls. The main palace building was formerly known as Viceroys House. History – The decision to build a residence in New Delhi for the British Viceroy was taken after it was decided in the Delhi Durbarof 1911 that the capital of India would be shifted from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Delhi in the same year. When the plan for a new city, New Delhi, adjacent to and south of Old Delhi, was developed in the beginning of the 20th century, the new palace for the Viceroy of India was given an enormous size and prominent position. About 4,000 acres of land was acquired to begin the construction of Viceroys House, as it was officially called, and adjacent Central Secretariatbetween 1911 and 1916 by relocating Raisina and Malcha villages that existed there and their 300 families under the 1894 Land Acquisition Act. The British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens, a major member of the city-planning process, was given the primary architectural responsibility. The completed Governor-Generals palace turned out very similar to the original sketches which Lutyens sent Herbert Baker, from Simla, on 14 June 1912. Lutyens design is grandly classical overall, with colours and details inspired by Indian architecture. Lutyens and Baker, who had been assigned to work on Viceroys House and the Secretariats, began on friendly terms. Baker had been assigned to work on the two secretariat buildings which were in front of Viceroys House. The original plan was to have Viceroys House on the top of Raisina Hill, with the secretariats lower down. It was later decided to build it 400 yards back, and put both buildings on top of the plateau. While Lutyens wanted Viceroys House to be higher, he was forced to move it back from the intended position, which resulted in a dispute with Baker. After completion, Lutyens argued with Baker, because the view of the front of the building was obscured by the high angle of the road. Lutyens campaigned for its fixing, but was not able to get it to be changed. Lutyens wanted to make a long inclined grade all the way to Viceroys House with retaining walls on either side. While this would give a view of the house from further back, it would also cut through the square between the secretariat buildings. The committee with Lutyens and Baker established in January 1914 said the grade was to be no steeper than 1 in 25, though it eventually was changed to 1 in 22, a steeper gradient which made it more difficult to see the Viceroys palace. While Lutyens knew about the gradient, and the possibility that the Viceroys palace would be obscured by the road, it is thought that Lutyens did not fully realise how little the front of the house would be visible. In 1916 the Imperial Delhi committee dismissed Lutyenss proposal to alter the gradient. Lutyens thought Baker was more concerned with making money and pleasing the government, rather than making a good architectural design. Lutyens travelled between India and England almost every year for twenty years, to work on the building of Viceroys House in both countries. Lutyens had to reduce the building size from 13,000,000 cubic feet (370,000 m3) to 8,500,000 cubic feet (240,000 m3) because of the budget restrictions of Lord Hardinge. While he had demanded that costs be reduced, he nevertheless wanted the house to retain a certain amount of ceremonial grandeur. When Chakravarti Rajagopalachari assumed the office as the first Governor General of India and became the occupant of this building he preferred to stay in a few rooms which is now the family wing of the President and converted the then Viceroys apartments to be the Guest Wing where the Heads of State of other countries stay during their visit to India. On 26 January 1950, when Rajendra Prasad became the first President of India and occupied this building, it was renamed as Rashtrapati Bhavan - the Presidents House. Architecture & Design – Consisting of four floors and 340 rooms, with a floor area of 200,000 square feet, it was built using 700 million bricks and three million cubic feet of stone. Hardly any steel was used in the construction of the building. The design of the building fell into the time period of the Edwardian Baroque, a time at which emphasis was placed on the use of heavy classical motifs in order to emphasise power and imperial authority. The design process of the mansion was long, complicated and politically charged. Lutyens early designs were all starkly classical and entirely European in style. His disrespect for the local building tradition he dismissed as primitive, is evident in his numerous sketches with appended scrawls such as Moghul tosh and his short remark that they want me to do Hindu -Hindont I say! In the post-Mutiny era, however, it was decided that sensitivity must be shown to the local surroundings in order to better integrate the building within its political context, and after much political debate Lutyens conceded to incorporating local indo-Saracenic motifs, albeit in a rather superficial decorational form on the skin of the building. Various Indian designs were added to the building. These included several circular stone basins on top of the building, as water features are an important part of Indian architecture. There was also a traditional Indian chujja or chhajja, which occupied the place of a frieze in classical architecture; it was a sharp, thin, protruding element which extended 8 feet (2.4 m) from the building, and created deep shadows. It blocks harsh sunlight from the windows and also shields the windows from heavy rain during the monsoon season. On the roofline were several chuttris, which helped to break up the flatness of the roofline not covered by the dome. Lutyens appropriated some Indian designs, but used them sparingly and effectively throughout the building. There were also statues of elephants and fountain sculptures of cobras in the gar of the retaining walls, as well as the bas-reliefs around the base of the Jaipur Column, made by British sculptor, Charles Sargeant Jagger. The column has a distinctly peculiar crown on top, a glass star springing out of bronze lotus blossom. There were grilles made from red sandstone, called jalis or jaalis.These jalis were inspired by Rajasthani design. The front of the palace, on the east side, has twelve unevenly spaced massive columns with the Delhi Ordercapitals. These capitals have a fusion of acanthus leaves with the four pendant Indian bells. The bells are similar in style to Indian Hindu and Buddhist temples, the idea being inspired from a Jain temple at Moodabidri in Karnataka. One bell is on each corner at the top of the column. It was said that as the bells were silent British rule in India would not end. The front of the building does not have windows, except in the wings at the sides. Lutyens established ateliers in Delhi and Lahore to employ local craftsmen. The chief engineer of the project was Sir Teja Singh Malik, and four main contractors included Sir Sobha Singh. Lutyens added several small personal elements to the house, such as an area in the garden walls and two ventilator windows on the stateroom to look like the glasses which he wore. The Viceregal Lodge was completed largely by 1929, and (along with the rest of New Delhi) inaugurated officially in 1931. Interestingly, the building took seventeen years to complete and eighteen years later India became independent. After Indian independence in 1947, the now ceremonial Governor-General continued to live there, being succeeded by the President in 1950 when India became a republic and the house was renamed Rashtrapati Bhavan. Lutyens stated that the dome is inspired by the Pantheon of Rome. There is also the presence of Mughal and European colonial architectural elements. Overall the structure is distinctly different from other contemporary British Colonial symbols. It has 355 decorated rooms and a floor area of 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²). The structure includes 700 million bricks and 3.5 million cubic feet (85,000 m³) of stone, with only minimal usage of steel.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:29:29 +0000
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