Built out of the existing landscape while celebrating the site, “Spirit of Place” was an exploration in curating spaces embedded with narratives.

The Chaurasi Khamba, a complex of 11 Temples, is a landscape of narrative spaces telling etiological myths and tales of Krishna’s life in Gokul. Maoz Azaryahu argues that space intersects with narrative in two principal ways: “Narrating space” considers space as an object of representation, while “spatializing narrative” approaches space as the environment in which narrative is physically deployed. n a landscape of narrating spaces where the built is treated as a backdrop over which the myths are draped, “Spirit of Place” argues the need for space that creates opportunities to experience and play out narratives of the everyday life of Gokul. The abandoned plot of land is re-imagined where the Meditation Centre acts a portal where the Parikramis rest amidst the landscape and reflect while the Revived Gaushala provides opportunities to engage with the landscape, as an ode to the Mahavan. The landscape, sculpted out of the context of a mountain and fields, creates the spine along which the built curates a journey for the Parikramis from Kund to the Pond with chance encounters with the landscape of the Cows.

Celebrating the quiet of the site with the Meditation Centre & reviving the Gaushala, the project allows for this missing interaction with the Parikramis. It curates a journey that begins with Kund surrounded by Temple related programs (Bhojnalya, Library and Shop) and moves towards the Pond lined with landscape driven programs (Meditation Hall, Pods and Gaushala).