third space by studio saar in rajasthan boasts patterned jali screens

a new learning and cultural center without boundaries

Anglo-Indian architecture practice Studio Saar has completed a new learning and cultural center in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for Dharohar, a not-for-profit organization working with schools and volunteers to provide extra-curricular activities in the area. Third Space: The Haveli of Creativity, Curiosity, and Community is a learning and discovery center for all ages that offers world-class facilities for educational programs, informal learning, socializing, and performing arts. Intended as a ‘third space’ – a place without boundaries beyond home or school, local children and people of all ages are encouraged to encounter and explore diverse, hands-on activities to better understand more about the world and their place within it.

Third Space by Studio Saar | image © Edmund Sumner

studio saar designs Third Space to host a widely rich program

The new center can host up to 2,000 visitors a day, offering a broad range of activities and workshops and providing much-needed resources to the people of Udaipur. Third Space is designed to foster Dharohar’s key principles of openness, accessibility, and inclusivity. This creates a free, unrestricted space that ignites curiosity, creativity, and a sense of community for visitors, volunteers, and staff. It features a flexible entrance for performances and community gatherings, a cinema, a performing arts theater, an interactive exhibition of science and technology, tinkering and maker spaces, workshopping and co-working spaces, a library, a café, and retail space, and a lookout tower to take in surrounding views. Third Space’s activities, programs, and curriculum are connected to 80 hectares of hills rewilded as part of a reforestation project by Dharohar and Studio Saar (see more here).

image © Edmund Sumner

echoing rajasthan’s traditional patterns and courtyard homes

The building’s design draws inspiration from traditional havelis courtyard homes, featuring a central courtyard surrounded by cloisters and shaded external circulation space. The facades feature intricate patterned Jali screens that provide ventilation while connecting the inside and outside. Small, cantilevered niches in the façades, known as gokhra, act as wind catchers, playing a key role in the building’s passive cooling strategy and doubling as playful alcoves for reading, meeting, and relaxing. A curved steel deck weaves around the courtyard and serves as a viewing platform, allowing visitors to observe the program of activities, climbing wall, and performance area below. The structure is populated by native trees and plants at multiple levels, aiding with wayfinding and bringing nature into the heart of the center.

image © Ananya Singhal

studio saar clads third space in bamboo, marble, and more

Cut-outs from the building’s local white marble screenwork and gokhra are used as floor tiles, creating a positive-negative relationship between facades and floors, while cut-outs from the metal screens form chainmail screens and doors. Waste marble rubble and lime mortar from nearby mines form the masonry walls, and marble dust replaces some of the cement and sand content in the concrete mix – resulting in a whiter finish that more effectively reflects the sun’s heat. The roof acts as an adventurous playscape, offering spaces for parkour and skateboarding, and features a woven bamboo canopy to provide solar shading, designed in collaboration with Webb Yates Engineers. Meanwhile, Studio Saar chose Bamboo for the canopy of Third Space and local weavers will be employed in its ongoing maintenance, resulting in a low-cost, low-carbon solution that creates steady local employment and reinforces the preservation of a traditional craft.

image © Ankit Jain

Third Space by Studio Saar is now open to the public. Models, photographs, drawings, visualizations, and a film of Third Space will be featured alongside Studio Saar’s other significant projects in the practice’s upcoming exhibition Craft, Community, and Connection as part of the 2024 London Festival of Architecture (LFA). The exhibition celebrates Studio Saar’s vision of creating uplifting spaces and places for all and is taking place at the Crafts Council Gallery in Angel, London, from 07 June until 15 June. To find out more, visit the LFA website.

image © Ankit Jain