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Studio Lotus has designed the Mehrangarh Fort visitor centre in Jodhpur, India, from a system of interconnected and adaptable decks.

Delhi-based Studio Lotus has designed the visitor and knowledge centre for the city’s 15th century Mehrangarh Fort, which towers 125 metres above Jodhpur on a rocky hill.

Describing their approach as an “architectural system” rather than a set of buildings, Studio Lotus said they wanted their interventions at the historic fort to be as sensitive as possible.

“The towering edifice of Mehrangarh and its various outcroppings constitute a staggeringly intricate built character, as much a testament to the beauty of the built form as it is an embodiment of the region’s culture and heritage,” said the architecture studio.

“It was pertinent that any additions or modifications to this dense fabric enmesh with the existing; the proposed intervention aims to do just that – through expressive and adaptable additions that make the most of modern construction technology, yet stand deferential to the historic site’s timeless magnificence.”

The Mehrangarh Fort Visitor Centre will create a new entrance for the site, situated at the junction between a path that will run parallel to the main entryway to the fort and the Jai Pol Plaza.

A modular steel lattice work roof will shelter the centre, which will be paved with stone slabs.

A knowledge centre, which will include exhibition galleries, seminar halls and community spaces, will sit on the north western ramparts overlooking the Chokhelao Bagh.

Interconnected decks will lead from the plaza to the knowledge centre, shaded by latticed stone screens known as jaalis, and more steel trellises.

Studio Lotus’ proposal for the Mehrangarh Fort visitor centre is modular and easy to build locally, allowing for new pathways and platforms to be added or re-configured as the uses of the historic site change.

In China Selldorf Architects is designing a visitor centre for a palace in Beijing’s forbidden city which has never been open to public before, and in Reiulf Ramstad designed a series of zig-zagging mountainous pathways for Norway’s Trollstigen Visitor Centre.

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