The Venkatappa Art Gallery renovation aims to revitalize a significant cultural space. Located in the heart of Bangalore city, the landmark is flanked by the 150-year-old Cubbon Park along the west and south sides. It has been a part of the museum precinct which includes the Government history museum and Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum.
The Venkatappa Art Gallery Revitalises A Significant Cultural Space | Architecture Paradigm
The Venkatappa art gallery renovation was about creating a space that revitalized the environs, providing a space for engagement, both within the building and outside. The place making idea draws from the enigmatic nature of the setting and the wonder and mystery associated with art. The existing moat-like storm water canal transforms the site into an island offering a unique setting for the gallery.
It offers an escape from the busy outdoors, creating a world onto itself where the gallery as a bastion for art coalesces with the idea of a secret garden to create a cultural highlight in the city. Art rarely reveals all its secrets, similarly the architects designed the gallery and the surrounding gardens to engender an unraveling experience that supports contemplation and creative engagement.
The project involves multiple stakeholders. Negotiating the complexity arising from the interests of the varied parties and our own pursuits set the tone for the approach. The design strategy was about transducing the existing dismal conditions as an art gallery into a vibrant public space for the city.
The architects designed the open spaces surrounding the art gallery as large, paved surfaces. These become exhibition spaces for the artists to display their artwork. This brings an additional experiential dimension to both the program and the space.
The low-level ground planting integrates with the existing vegetation. It creates a visually seamless plane for interaction and movement whilst celebrating the existing storm water canal. The architects revitalized the canal in the most passive manner. Without concretising the bed it revives its ecological health and performance.
This rejuvenation of the canal and the surrounding grounds can be looked at as a deliberate act of extending the foreground of the gallery. Thus, making it visually prominent from Kasturba Road thereby reconnecting with the city.
The design envisages a sculpture park in the eastern edge of the canal along Kasturba Road. Such a strategy successfully creates two distinct canal edges. One that is programmatically fluid along the gallery edge and one that is more definitive housing the sculpture park.
Also Nestled within the garden are stepped seating along the nala edge. An open-air seating space is towards the rear of the building around a large Rain tree. These articulations enhance the experience of the overall space while creating fluidity in program. The treatments of the open spaces allow for art related activities to come to fore. Thus, maximizing biodiversity through middle and lower tier planting complementing the adjoining Cubbon Park.
This transformation restores pride and celebrates the work of eminent artists of Karnataka. Those being Venkatappa and KK Hebbar, whose permanent gallery it houses.
The renovation for the gallery utilizes the existing footprint of the building while focusing on redistribution and reassignment of spaces. The design intervention focuses on reuse bringing to fore the inherent potential that exists within the existing structure.
The need for temporary exhibition spaces by the artists community combined with restructuring strategies led to the creation of more gallery spaces on the ground floor. This would create more vibrant and participatory spaces that extend to the grounds around the gallery as well. At the ground level there are three temporary art galleries of varying sizes adjacent to each other.
They can work independently or can be connected to offer different possibilities and flexibility needed for the exhibitions. The architects dedicated the first floor to the new Venkatappa art gallery which offers larger space for more detailed exhibits.
The former disused terrace space overlooking Kasturba Road has been refurbished and now houses a café that further connects one to the surroundings. The Hebbar’s gallery retains its home in the second level of the building and the adjoining terrace facing the Cubbon park greens transforms itself into an informal workshop space.
The existing building in its dilapidated state presented innumerable challenges during the process of renovation to restore it to its former status as a building of relevance.
The resultant silhouette is reminiscent of the old, the treatment is new both outside and inside addressing the needs of the changing times. The Design expression encourages one to come and discover not only art but place itself, making it a valuable addition to the cultural discourse in Bengaluru.
Fact File
Designed by: Architecture Paradigm
Project Type: Art Gallery / Commercial Building
Location: Bangalore
Year Built: 2025
Principal Architects: Manoj Ladhad, Sandeeep J & Vimal Jain
Photograph Courtesy: Architecture Paradigm
Firm’s Instagram Link: Architecture Paradigm
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