Anandpur Sahib in the Punjab province is the sacred city of the Sikhs, located at the foot of the Himalayas, not far from the famous Chandigarh. This is one of the main places of pilgrimage: in 1699 guru Gobind Singh founded here the Sikh sacred brotherhood - Khalsa. The construction of the museum is timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Sikhism and the 300th anniversary of Khalsa.
The complex, occupying an area of 30 hectares, is divided into two parts by a moat with a system of dams and ponds, over which an arched pedestrian bridge is thrown. The western part includes an entrance area, a concert hall with 400 seats, an extensive library with two floors of research rooms, and a gallery for temporary exhibitions.
In the eastern part there is a semicircular memorial building and cylindrical gallery towers with a permanent exhibition, crowned with concave petal roofs. United in five, they symbolize the five main virtues of the Sikh religion. The monolithic forms give rise to the images of the region's ancient fortresses and form an impressive silhouette against the backdrop of the mountains.
The complex expressive forms of the buildings are made of concrete and cast on the spot. Some of the columns, arcades and beams are left with the original rough texture, but the bulk of the structures are faced with local natural honey-colored stone.
The concave roof, reminiscent of open petals, is covered with steel sheets that reflect the sky. The reflection of the complex itself is also effective in the water surface of the vast ponds of the adjacent park, which are filled with rainwater through the moat.
Together with the Khalsa Heritage Museum in Washington DC, the Safdie-designed complex of the American Institute for Peace, an independent organization that is looking for diplomatic ways to resolve conflicts around the world, is preparing to open. The headquarters is located on the territory of the National Mall - the "main street" of the United States, where the most important memorials and cultural institutions are concentrated.
The complex will house offices, a scientific archive, a library, a conference and training center. The building itself consists, as it were, of several buildings with a rigid modernist grid of windows, interconnected by means of extensive atriums. Above them are the spherical cantilevered structures of the corrugated roof, with a steel frame and frosted glazing.
Opaque during the day and glowing at night, the building is visible from many of the most important structures in the center of the American capital, and its atriums offer panoramic views of the Potomac River and the Lincoln Memorial.
N. K.
