The article throws light on the concept of experiencing and reliving through a

museum. Exhibition design evolved, from early beginnings of repetitive displays of objects in glass
and wood cases, to modern interpreted galleries using contemporary tools of environmental and
exhibition design for displays and settings to inform visitors in comfort, while continuing to isolate the
objects by to define their status. But here the emphasize is on the need for contrapuntal

areas, where the eye and the mind could rest. The author recollects that he
wanted the museum to grow when he was asked to design the Smarak
Sangrahalaya for Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. He
wanted the museum to be in intrinsic form, expressing the man himself. He
created the mood of calmness and contemplation, through as a series of
pavilions, some open and some enclosed, interspersed with courtyards and a
water pool with the crucial element being the open-to-sky space in between. The
author then discusses about the symbiotic relationship between container and
contained pertaining to the context of museums. He takes up the example of
National Crafts Museum in Delhi where one wanted to exhibit each item without
falsifying its meaning. This was brought about by using a simple concept of 3
categories: village crafts, sacred crafts, and court crafts. The whole museum was
divided into galleries which could be visited depending on the interest and one's
progress down it from village to temple to palace, seemed to become a
metaphor for India herself. There are some other projects as well which makes
use of this typology including art centres. In all these examples, the contrapuntal
open-to-sky areas are of primary importance-an approach that is perhaps
somewhat more difficult to incorporate in a cold climate. It also tends to
complicate the overall security since disaggregation of the intrinsic form
necessitates that each subgroup has its own independent protection. But all
these are negligible impacts considering the visitor experience. The author finds
delight in mentioning the instances of the same in diverse areas of the world. He
talks about Howard Hodgkin exhibition at the Anthony D'Offray Gallery in London
where one encounters streets and townhouses, Holocaust Museum in
Washington where the excruciating experiences of the main galleries are
interspersed with transitional areas that mark a clear change of rhythm and also
Ramirez Vazquez's wonderful National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City
where one enters into a large rectangular courtyard surrounded by various
galleries, each showing a different period of Mexican culture. If all these were
projected in a close air-conditioned place, it would be nothing but a hotel lobby
more or less. Nowadays, many museums involve a certain amount of open-to-sky
space and this evolution of design and typology of museums have indeed added
to one's enjoyment of those experiences.