Most people know heritage when they see it. We travel to towns and cities to admire historic buildings. We visit museums to see artifacts from cultures past and present. But there are other ways history is passed down that are harder to hold onto and to recognize, even though they’re a daily part of life. They belong to what we call intangible heritage. A language is a form of intangible heritage. It’s about so much more than spelling and grammar. Unfortunately, just like our historic buildings and natural environments, languages can disappear forever. This Research Centre and integrated Museum is part of a growing, global effort to preserve and celebrate languages and to educate the public about them. It is a speculation on how linguistic essentials can be elaborated, preserved, and symbolized spatially and how the building as an object could serve that purpose.

The synthesis of the Bhaashalaya was conceptualized to attract diverse user groups who speak several hundred different languages so as to reminiscence of their socio-cultural origins. The agenda of this design is to generate interest and curiosity to spread awareness about Language as an entity through form culture. The Design is located in New Delhi, as a part of a government-issued tender to develop a linguistic Museum. The overall arrangement of the program on the site and volumetric placement take its cues from the historical development of the language and its overlapping layers. For the façade skin use of zinc plates as a part of the distorted façade building material, perforated with varying linguistic syllables generates magnificent shadows on the floor that makes the visitor perceive while walking into the space as it acts as a proponent of conversations with one's surroundings. The idea is to impart a sense of unity amongst the visitors and at the same time generate a sense of curiosity to explore the depths of the space. The project critically looks into the center as typology and tries to redefine it by subverting the relationship between the subject (the visitor) and object (the display). Envisioned as a museum cum cultural hub/community center, Linguistic Labyrinth organizes itself around the subjects (the visitors) as opposed to objects (the display).