A Lasting Footprint

Sonal Sancheti and Rahul Gore of _Opolis Architects balance the past, present and future in their contextual creations, including the recently opened Bihar Museum.

- Tina Thakrar

Life goes on as per usual on Patna’s busy Bailey Road, while only a few feet away, running parallel to it, the newly opened Bihar Museum quietly exhibits the rich history of the state in its cool corridors. Comfortably complementing the existing Patna Museum, this new entity has now become a landmark of not only the capital city, but also the state.

Over 1,500 kms away, in the city of Mumbai, Rahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti of _Opolis Architects describe this 2.5 lakh sqft museum as their largest, most well-planned and executed, and probably most challenging project till date. Designed in collaboration with Maki & Associates, the Bihar Museum forms part of a 17-year collection of projects put together by the duo, covering residences, public buildings and urban projects.

_Opolis’ work on the Bihar Museum is a true representation of its philosophy, which is strongly reflected in the firm’s name. The letter ‘O’ signifies respect, ‘polis’ means the built environment and the underscore stands for the open-endedness of the firm and its refusal to be slotted into any one particular typology of architecture.

BIHAR BEGINNINGS

In 2011, _Opolis embarked on its largest project till date; a project they hadn’t just chanced upon, but rather competed for against other contestants in an international competition set by the Bihar Government to design the Bihar Museum. A prerequisite for the qualification process was to collaborate with an international firm, and the duo immediately turned to previous mentor and guide Fumihiko Maki, who runs Maki & Associates in Tokyo, Japan.

“Since we had worked with Maki & Associates as young architects, both teams were extremely comfortable working with each other. It was a seamless process; more like an extension of old times!” says Sancheti.