A VISIT TO HATHI GAON, JAIPUR Department of Sustainable Architecture, Central University of Rajasthan

HATHI GAON: A Project where elephant is the client

• Visitors can ascend the sinuous road to Amber Fort, Jaipur by car, foot, or elephant. This last means affords the best vantage point to soak in the grandeur with the slow steps of the elephant. • This gigantic animal obeys to one person only, its Mahout. The elephant and the mahout are the least thought off beings outside of being useful as mediums for entertainment.

• Hathi Gaon, is a project which is designed with the elephant and mahout as the clients.

Introduction

• The project focuses on developing housing for the mahouts and their families.

• Its intended as both a residential complex for 200 and a tourist destination in its own right

• Its designed by Rahul Mehrotra Architects.

• Political factors have stretched the Hathigaon project to four years, and counting. It will take around 3 years more to open the visitors centre.

• The architect Rahul Mehrotra ensured that certain details that affected quality of life, such as the infrastructure and design of the water bodies, matched the original plan without compromise.

Residential Units • The dwellings are small—200

square feet—and arranged in sets of four, wrapped around communal courtyards.

• The housing units are organized in clusters and situated on portions of the site that are not used for the landscape regeneration.

• The elephants are housed in garage-like rooms with exits on the outer, non-courtyard-facing, sides of the buildings.

• The families can customize their dwellings as they wish, including enclosing the rooftop terrace to add living space.

Ecology as the main concept • The architect has focused on

creating a tropical environment for the elephants, with the help of water bodies , pathways and forest area.

• Unlike other architecture projects, this project has landscape as the centre and architecture has evolved around it.

• focusing on the landscape and using the precious resource of water as the central instrument around which decisions were facilitated

Water as a centre • The water body was a critical

component of the design, as it also facilitated the bonding between the mahout and elephant, through the process of bathing – an important ritual both for the health of the elephant as well as their attachment to their keeper.

Architect Mohan S. Rao

• He is the only landscape architect from India, thus far, to have been recognized with an international award.

http://www.arborsbythelake.com/abtl_expertise_landscape_architect.html

• Mohan S Rao. a Landscape Architect from the SPA, Delhi and the Founder of INDE (1994).

• He leads the design team of all projects and his involvement extends from Master Planning to schematic design through construction detailing.

• He is keenly involved with Academics and has served on numerous juries and lectures.

• Also, he is an active participant in the public forum of sustainable design and development issues.

Ar. Rahul Mehrotra

• Trained at the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad, and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He has been in private practice since 1990, and works on architecture, urban design and conservation projects.

• Professor Mehrotra is Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute, which promotes awareness and research on the city of Bombay.