45
Courtesy Opolis
Detail Section of Jali between Block H&Gwe did our master’s education in the year 1997-98.
This was a period of un-learning and re-learning
and more importantly we were fortunate enough
to forge relations with Mr. Maki and his team.
The two leading project architects of the Bihar
Museum, Mr. Tatsutomo Hasegawa and Mr. Michel
Van Ackere were our colleagues at that time and
that camaraderie was been very helpful in picking
up threads after 13 years.
The confidence shown by Mr. Maki in the abilities
of our rather young studio showed his belief in
our collaboration. There was complete trust
between the two practices that enabled a seamless
continuation of design development right from
the concept till the construction stages.
Frequent visits between India and Japan, along
with four workshops held between the design
team and the consultants were conducted during
the design stage. This has indeed proved to be
critical in making a successful collaboration. These
workshops not only enabled ideas to flow and evolve
but also helped to connect the people working on
this project.
KM: What do you think was the journey for Mr.
Maki and his studio, doing a project in India?
RG: For an office doing work internationally is
always a challenge and particularly so doing a
project in India which has a different economy
and process of construction than what they have
experienced so far. However, it is our observation
that once the process of workability and the
nature of collaboration were set in place, it became
easy for the Maki studio to adapt to an Indian
situation. This resulted in a coordinating with
the Opolis studio.
It required tremendous perseverance and patience
to restrain the design intent at every stage from
being diluted. The joint teamwork between our
offices helped achieve this goal especially as we
had four members from our Opolis studio stationed
at the Patna site office throughout the construc-
tion period. They were the eyes and ears for the
Mumbai-Tokyo offices, which ensured judicious