Selected Work
Shreyes Yohan Jos X NEWFORMED / Copyright 2024 / All Rights Reserved
Shreyes Yohan Jos X NEWFORMED / Copyright 2024 / All Rights Reserved
Willingdon Arts Terminal
Centre for Arts, CochinRVCA Semester 8 - Thesis Studio
Advisers: Anil Dube + Edgar Demello
View from the Parking
towards the Main Entrane
Advisers: Anil Dube + Edgar Demello
Kochi / Cochin is an important port city within the southern Indian state of Kerala. Cochin rose to prominence as the center of the Indian spice trade among the Greek, Roman, Jew, Syrian, Arab, Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch communities for many centuries after the submergence of the ancient seaport ‘Muziris’ that existed.
The city consists of Ernakulam, Willingdon Island, Fort Kochi / Old Kochi, and Mattancherry within its Metropolitan limits.
It holds its place as the commercial, and industrial capital of Kerala and is at the brink of breaking into another cosmopolitan city in India with remittances from non-residential Indians being a major source of its investment.
Among the gamut of developments taking place, is a brewing art scene within the old city of Fort Kochi, expedited by the Art Biennale eponymously known as the Kochi Muziris Biennale which emerged in the year 2012, that became an international success and continues to be so during its renewal bi-annually.
Focused primarily within Old Kochi, the locations picked for the exhibition pay homage to the vibrant cultural heritage that Kochi has.
It is this exuberant confluence of culture that makes the Kochi Muziris Biennale a cross-border sensation.
This project however attempts to decentralize the biennale from the Old precinct of Kochi and proposes an alternate venue within Willingdon Island located between Ernakulam city and the Fort Kochi region.
But more importantly, the interface is imagined as a pivotal art node for Kerala and its commercial capital Cochin that will provide space for activities related to the arts to operate within. It will also act as the southern terminal point of the proposed Willingdon business district along the waterfront.
The Terminal is programmed as an arts centre that will contain a museum, a performance centre and a library, It will host art related events and will also accommodate the biennale during its term biannually.
In addition, its linkage to the waterfront provides an interface with the public domain wherein it extends into a large throbbing public plaza and intersection for WIllingdon Island and Kochi.