Arup designed the Hindu Heritage Experience (HHE) Centre in Mangarh, Uttar Pradesh. Throughout the design process, Arup used advanced digital tools to develop the geometry of the museum, as well as to improve buildability, facilitate prefabrication, and optimize energy performance.
The project develops an immersive experience in which spiritual teachings are transformed into an inspirational experiential journey. The masterplan, landscape, and buildings take you on this journey by using symbolic forms to elicit emotion through the senses of scent, sight, sound, and touch.
HHE is a spiritual immersive experiential center based on the life and teachings of Jagadguruttam Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj, a significant religious figure. It is being built in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh.
The overall project creates a new civic campus for the site’s philanthropic foundation, whose generous operations include free hospitals, educational facilities, and grain allocation centers for the surrounding community.
The Hindu Heritage Experience Centre consists of two buildings, the first in the form of a lotus flower and the second in the shape of two hands coming together in the namaste gesture. The Lotus will host a series of exhibitions, while the Namaste will house valuable relics and study space for Jagadguru teachings.
The geometry of the new museum is highly complex, inspired by nature and religious symbolism. Architects started by developing a digital twin through advanced modeling, rationalizing wherever possible. This entailed documenting and streamlining every radius, as well as establishing the principles for the lotus flower shell and namaste structure. To keep things simple, architects repeated patterns and added symmetry to the shells.
The thermal mass of the building shell acts as a barrier to sun exposure during the day and cools at night, reducing energy consumption. Deep overhangs, indigenous tree species, and water are used in the design to modify local microclimatic conditions, providing solar shading in critical areas as well as shelter, dust suppression, and cooling.
Project Info
Project: Hindu Heritage Experience Centre
Contractor: Leighton Asia
Client: JKP Foundation
Location: Bhakti Dham, Mangarh
Status: Under Construction
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