Layout of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Being very big and the biggest residence of any Head of the State in the world, Rashtrapati Bhavan has seperate wings for the Viceroy and guests. The viceroy’s wing is a separate four-storey house in itself, with its own court areas within. This wing was so large that the first president of India decided not to stay there, staying in the guest wing, a tradition which was followed by subsequent presidents.

The layout of the palace is designed around a massive square and it has many courtyards, rooms and open inner areas within. There is the Durbar Hall, at the centre of the main part of the palace. It lies just below the main dome. This was known as the Throne Room during British rule when it had thrones for the Viceroy and his wife.

The hall has a 2-ton chandelier which hangs from a 33-metre height. On each of the four corners of the hall is a room, including two state drawing rooms, a state supper room and the state library. There are also other rooms such as many loggias (galleries with open air on one side) which face out into the courtyards, a large dining hall with an extremely long table, sitting rooms, billiards rooms, and a large ball room, and staircases. Water features are also through the palace, such as near the Viceroy’s stairs, which has eight marble lions spilling water into six basins. The lions symbolise Britain, as the lion was often used for this purpose. There is also an open area in one room to the sky, which lets in much of the natural light.

The dome in the middle involved a mixture of Indian and British styles. In the centre was a tall copper dome surmounted on top of a drum, which stands out from the rest of the building, due to its height. The dome is exactly in the middle of the diagonals between the four corners of the building. The dome is more than twice the height of the rest of the building. The height of the dome was raised by Lord Hardinge in the plan of the building in 1913.

The dome combines classical and Indian styles. Lutyens said the design evolved from that of the Pantheon in Rome, while it is also possible that it was modelled after the great Stupa at Sanchi. A porch goes around the dome with evenly spaced columns which support the dome, with an open area between the columns. Because this goes the whole way round, it makes the dome appear from any angle that it is ‘floating’ as seen in the heat haze of Delhi. The reinforced concrete shell of the outer dome began to take shape near the start of 1929. The last stone of the dome was laid on April 6, 1929. However the copper casing of the dome was not laid until 1930.

The main entrance to Rashtrapati Bhavan is known as Gate 35, and is located on Prakash Vir Shastri Avenue, renamed from North Avenue in November 2002, as a memorial to the politician of the namesake who served here during his tenure as a Member of Parliament for the state of Uttar Pradesh.

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

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Tags: Architecture, INDIA, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rome, Throne Room