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Chandavarkar & Thacker	Library	Bangalore, India	December 1999
This extension to the Indian Institute of Science’s library offers a range of inspiring places for study. Click on image to view larger version in new window
The jury was deeply impressed by the sensitivity of the extension to the JRD Tata Digital Library at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. It responds to site, trees, local materials and craftsmanship, creating tranquil outdoor spaces on a sloping site, formed round the trees. At the bottom of the site, there is a pool with steps leading to it: a re-invocation of the traditional Indian tank, and the proposed centre of future expansion. Just as it resonates with Indian tradition, the new library has memories of Wright and Kahn, a regional building certainly, but a most sophisticated one, which fuses local culture and knowledge of the architectural teachings of the twentieth century. The courts fall down the site with grace and calm, relating interior to outside in a way that makes the relatively new function of a public library seem almost timeless. Here sat Plato’s scholars in their grove; here is the echo of Alexandria. Made from thin slabs of local grey granite, the building is a testimony to the skills of the architects (and the craftsfolk) who have dealt most elegantly with the extremely difficult problems of making a building of quality in a country where it is often difficult to get construction properly executed. Here is an outstanding example of what can happen if inventive architectural imagination can be married to tradition. Architect Chandavarkar & Thacker Architects Project team Sanjay Mohe, Kukke Subramaniam