Design of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Various Indian designs were also added to the building. These included several circular stone basins on the top of the palace, as water features are an important part of Indian architecture. There was also a traditional Indian chujja or chhajja, which took the place of a frieze in classical architecture; it was a sharp, thin, protruding element which extended 8 feet (2.4 m) from the building, and created deep shadows.There were also statues of elephants and fountain sculptures of cobras in the gardens. The British sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger, known for his war memorials in Britain, designed the elephants on the corners of the retaining walls, as well as the bas-reliefs around the base of the Jaipur Column.

Inspired from the Indian designs, there were grilles made from red sandstone, called jalis or jaalis. The front of the palace, on the east side, has twelve unevenly spaced columns with the Delhi order capitals. These capitals have a fusion of acanthus leaves with the four pendant Indian bells. The Indian temple bells are a part of the culture of Indian religions, such as Hindu and Buddhist, the idea coming from a Jain temple at Moodabidri in Karnataka. One bell is on each corner at the top of the column. It was said that as the bells were silent British rule in India would not end. The front of the palace does not have windows, except for the wings at the sides.

Lutyens stated that the dome is inspired by the Pantheon of Rome. There is also the presence of Mughal and European colonial architectural elements. Overall the structure is distinctly different from other contemporary British Colonial symbols. It has 355 decorated rooms and a floor area of 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²). The structures includes 700 million bricks and 3.5 million cubic feet (85,000 m³) of stone, with only minimal usage of steel.

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtrapati_Bhavan

Tags: Architecture, INDIA, Jaipur Column, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rome