‘Architecture is larger than life, it outlives you’

What is the purpose of the Mughal Museum in Agra?
Sourabh Gupta (SG): It’s a museum of art and architecture of the Mughals. The intent is that people who visit the Taj Mahal also learn of Fatehpur Sikri, the Red Fort and Humayun’s Tomb, and see how different they are from one another. For instance, the Taj Mahal was meant to be seen from Mehtab Bagh, the old garden complex, rather than from where we see it today. At the Museum, we are building up on the storytelling rather than placing pieces of exhibits.

What was your research approach for this project and your inferences?
Alexander Schwartz (AS): We visited a lot of places in an intense 10-day sequence more than two years ago, creating a cultural map of Mughal architecture. Our approach is not that of an art historian. Architects look at things and try to develop an idea of what we see. One doesn’t have the stress of historic truth. The question we asked ourselves was: how much should the architecture for a museum on Mughal architecture reflect Mughal architecture? I think it should definitely not be visually Mughal.

Rendering of the Mughal Museum, which is set to open at the Taj Mahal complex next year. (Source: Express photo by Amit Mehra)

It’s quite contrary to what people expect a Mughal museum to be.
AS: I found it interesting to see how modern and rational Mughal architecture is. It produces these paradise settings. I think the relationship between the rational and the abstract aspects of the plan, and the pleasure of the surface, these synergies are compelling. We have abstracted some of these principles into the museum, and have tried to translate these ideas into the architecture. According to me, Mughal architecture is international. For instance, look at the plan of Taj Mahal and St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Imperial architecture has always been about knowing what other emperors do. It collects universal knowledge of its time. At the Taj, it was both exotic and being at home, all at once.

SG: We have tried to create light, proportion and emphasied the skilful use of material, using the harmony of repetition in some of the elements.

How did you select the site of the museum and how has that dictated the design?
AS: The site was found by Sourabh while making the Taj Ganj masterplan. But it’s not an easy site. It’s L-shaped, has a hotel opposite and residences around. But the way it integrates the landscape of Agra is fascinating. There is this long-distance relationship with the Red Fort, the Taj itself, and the flow of the river. You can measure the world from there.

SG: Agra was once a garden city, and Mehtab Bagh is just across the river. It was a landscape city, and the landscape, therefore, became important to the Mughal Museum, too.

AS: I think, in terms of heritage, this larger landscape is as important.

Alexander, most of your work has minimal finishes. How does it work for the Mughal Museum?
AS: We do enjoy rich details. We are using smooth Indian marble. The nice part is that you can use this material as a modern ornament. I believe it’s an escape from the modernism critique, which is not interested in the pleasure of surfaces. There is concrete and its roughness, in similar form, next to each other.

You have also been trained in violin making. Has the discipline influenced your architecture?
AS: If you learn a craft like that, you know about the making of things. I like this aspect of architecture, the making has always been an expression of the profession. But it is not only about form. There’s also the essence of how the air feels and the light falls, and how the architecture wraps around it. It’s the opposite idea an image. What buildings hide and what they show. For me, this kind of sensitivity comes from violin making.

Most of your projects are ‘non buildings’, they sit in a fine zone as transition spaces. Currently, David Chipperfield Architects has projects across the world. What do you attribute this success to?
AS: When a client sees our building, it’s way better than sexy photographs. It’s not so easy to capture our interest as a practice in another media. In our digital world, where everything is available immediately, architecture has a big chance to be the other part. It is anachronistic. Location by nature cannot be downloaded, and its physicality makes it an interesting counterpoint to the general availability of things.

SG: Architecture is larger than life, it outlives you, and it stays long after you are gone. So it’s important that it is not loud and has only a temporary appeal. Therefore, for me, it was interesting to partner with David Chipperfield Architects. They understand this in their work. And it’s a challenge to do that when you build next to the Taj Mahal. It shouldn’t shout or be loud.

Architecture is larger than life, it outlives you, and it stays long after you are gone. (Source: Express photo by Amit Mehra)

What does it mean to work with the heaviness of history?
AS: We enjoy heaviness. A strong context lays the criteria of what to do. But then there is also the contradiction. The Mughal Museum is next to the Taj but is also in the middle of nowhere. So, it is not only about context, you also bring in something. In Berlin, we are working on a World Heritage Site that is heavy. You don’t have to invent too much if you are in that situation, just do the right thing.

What’s been your experience of working in India?
AS: India seems to have kept layers of its old culture intact. I have never experienced such a multi-layered cultural background. It is quite different from countries that have similar old history. India has a certain contemporariness, which I like a lot. If you deal skilfully with that, then you can be very different from others. Meanwhile, consumerism exists but it does not overwhelm. Also, you can sense that the same understanding of time is not there. It’s a completely different model compared to most other countries.