Set in the Thar desert near the girls’ school in Jaisalmer, the Gyaan Center is envisioned as a place where women gather, learn, and return empowered to their communities, it fosters sustainable livelihoods through skill and shared purpose.
Empowering Women in the Thar Desert
Gyaan Center | wip
Citta Foundation
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
2023 Work in progress
Built Up : 29,000 sq ft
PROJECT OVERVIEW
A 40-metre open dome, built in adobe brick and stone by local artisans, celebrates collective making and regional craft.
Conceived as two spirals coming together, the form embodies both movement and return — drawing women inward into a sheltered space of learning, and extending skills outward into surrounding villages. These spirals become pathways of exchange, forming a nucleus of livelihood, confidence, and craft.
At its heart lies an open courtyard, held gently beneath a vast 40-metre dome. An oculus at its apex pulls light and desert wind into the space, creating a natural microclimate for meeting, making, and gathering. The dome rises from hand-laid adobe corbels and is skinned with locally quarried sandstone — an contract between earth, craft, and resilience.
Its making was as important as its form: the project became a platform for training and developing artisan teams, ensuring that the craft of building itself became part of the Center’s legacy.
FIG (O1)
Jaisalmer Sandstone
Sustainably sourced and crafted from local earth, adobe bricks form the corbelled dome and internal wall structures. Their thermal mass, tactile quality, and low embodied energy anchor the building in regional construction traditions while supporting climate-responsive performance.
FIG (O2)
Adobe Bricks
Locally quarried sandstone is hand-dressed into curved courses that trace the building’s fluid geometry. Its inherent durability, warm tonality, and artisanal finish reflect the desert landscape while reinforcing a long lineage of stone craftsmanship in Rajasthan.
FIG (O3)
Seamless surface
In clinical workspaces, non-porous and stain-resistant surfaces flow seamlessly, preventing bacterial growth simplifying upkeep and merging clinical rigor with understated elegance.
FIG (O4)
Artwork
Botanical and landscape-inspired artworks are integrated thoughtfully into care environments, offering familiarity for patient wellbeing by easing stress and introducing gentle cues from the natural world.
FIG (O5)
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