THE CRAFTS MUSEUM, NEW DELHI

The institution of the museum, aimed at housing objects of antiquity, is of Western origin. As India adopted the readymade Western archaeological museum concept in the nineteenth century, it missed the past’ and ‘present’ were not so severely divided in its case, and it therefore failed to give adequate importance in its museums to the evolving context of its culture-the living practices of rituals, festivals, weekly markets, picture-shows of itinerants storytellers, the materials, techniques and tools of artisans, the cultural changes and the attitude towards the past and the contemporary tradition as such. It is this overlooked dimension of Indian culture which is emphasized in the concept of the Craft Museum.

The low-lying museum building, most appropriate for displaying India’s rural and tribal arts, is designed by the renowned architect Charles Correa, to act as metaphor for an Indian village street-affable, accommodative and active.

A walk across the Crafts Museum building would be through open and semi-open passages covered with sloping, tiled roofs and lined with old carved wooden jharokhas, doors, windows, utensils and storage jars and perforated iron screens, through courtyards having domed pigeon houses adorned
with arches and lattice work panels, terracotta sive temple chariots and vermilion covered aniconic wayside altars, providing every now and then a peep through a window into vast museum galleries.

The scales and proportions of the building are based on those of the traditional Indian village where objects of everyday life are handmade and used.

In this “non-building”, as Correa calls it, he further explores the idea of a puzzle-box & the use of platforms at varying levels to articulate space.

The first phase of the Crafts Museum started in 1975, was completed in 1977. The second & final phase was expected to be completed in 1987, where ancient buildings of cultural importance have been inset into the new built form.