From educational institutions and resorts to rugs and art, baoris are having a moment of revival
British designer Thomas Heatherwick's Vessel, a $150-million monument in New York's Hudson Yards, also took inspiration from ancient Indian stepwells.
Image: Noam Galai/Getty Images
It was the early 1990s when architects Sangeeta Merchant and Sanjeev Panjabi of Spasm Design came across the kunda in Modhera in Gujarat on a weekend trip. The two were then students of Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture in Mumbai and though the reservoir is not as illustrious as its other counterparts, it was enough to make them vow, “that if we ever get a chance to work on a college, institution, or a cultural building, we would use this typology. But in a way that is modern, while respecting our traditions and culture,” Merchant says.
Decades later, true to their word, they have combined the functional, social and spiritual aspects of a stepwell for the students of Sanskriti Vihara building at the KJ Somaiya Educational Trust campus in Mumbai. “It was a latent memory that instantly came to the fore in our minds,” Panjabi says of the invitational competition to design the building about 10 years ago. Currently under construction, it should be ready in time before the new academic year begins in May 2025, and “students will be able to walk the actual facade of the building instead of being inside”.
From a minimalistic utilitarian character during the Indus Valley Civilisation to post-seventh-century plunging ornate structures that still elicit awe, stepwells have always been a part of Indian architectural consciousness. And right now they seem to be having a revival moment, not just in architecture but also in design and art.
The Sanskriti Vihara building at the KJ Somaiya Educational Trust campus in Mumbai is architect duo Sangeeta Merchant and Sanjeev Panjabi's ode to the Indian stepwells.
Image: Spasm Design Architects.
Amid the neutral and monochromatic canvas of Bookmark Resort Jogi Mahal in Ranthambore, that started operations in January 2024, the wall near the swimming pool provides a dreamy backdrop. The wall, inspired from Abhaneri’s Chand Baori in Rajasthan, one of the most famous, deepest, largest, and oldest stepwells in India, not only displays a fine game of shadows with every passing moment but also brings guests together in the evenings by becoming a stage for folk artists.