India's New National War Museum

Image: AICA Awards Ceremony, Pune, India

It has been a while since presenting an award at India's architectural festival in Pune. On the anniversary of the event, news that the Government of India has sanctioned the construction of Indian National War Museum in New Delhi arrived. A design by HORIZON DESIGN STUDIO PVT LTD as reported by Architizer seems to be the favoured design which boasts an inclusive design - "The design encourages the visitors at India gate, Central Vista, Copernicus Marg and Tilak Marg to flow into building through multiple levels & entries making is truly a public building offering a mix of indoor & outdoor spaces".

Despite the winning design, it is the narrative communicated and the curation of the artifacts that are essential in remembering a nations relationship to war, the nuances of conflict victim-hood, perpetration and the sociopolitical conditions that war surfaces from. An indication of which, alludes the news so far - If anyone has this information would you kindly drop uniformnovember a link to the data.....

It appears to be an interesting and important project that represents India's approach to architecture and memorialisation, a cultural significat building that has fantastic potential for social cohesion and a national culture memory and culture.