ECHOES OF TRADITION : AN INTERACTIVE &

EXPERIENTIAL SPACE FOR TRADITIONAL MUSICAL

INSTRUMENTS.

Introduction
Indian classical and folk musical instruments are repositories of knowledge, emotion, and
regional identity. Traditionally nurtured through oral transmission, ritual, and community
engagement, these instruments such as the sitar, tabla, bansuri, mridanga, and ektara
represent more than just sound; they embody a lived culture.
Today, however, due to westernization, and disintegration of traditional learning systems,
these instruments face neglect.
Existing institutions like music colleges, museums, or performance venues are often
fragmented in function: museums isolate instruments behind glass, performance halls are
acoustically exclusive, and learning happens in institutional formats, disconnected from the
craft and experience of making.
Thus, a new architectural model is needed: a space where preservation, hands-on learning,
performance, and interactive engagement converge where visitors are not just observers
but participants.

Aim
To design an interactive, experiential
architectural space that actively
contributes to the preservation,
education, craftsmanship, performance,
and public engagement of traditional
Indian musical instruments across diverse
cultural zones of India, ensuring their
continued relevance in contemporary
society.

Objectives
To create an architectural space where traditional Indian musical instruments
are experienced, not just exhibited.
To foster active learning through acoustically sensitive classrooms, workshops,
and performance zones.
To house regional craftspeople, scholars, and students under one
interdisciplinary space.
To build a dynamic living archive rather than a static museum.
To engage the public through interaction, making them part of the musical
narrative.
 Cultural Context &
Intangible Heritage

Traditional Instruments as Cultural and Spatial Heritage

Indian instruments are classified in ancient texts like the Natyashastra and Sangeet Ratnakar
into:
Tata (string): Sitar, sarod, veena
Avanaddha (percussion): Tabla, pakhawaj, mridangam
Sushira (wind): Bansuri, shehnai
Ghana (idiophones): Manjeera, kartal
These instruments have ritualistic, symbolic, and regional identity, with each type requiring
specific spatial conditions for playing, making, and storing. While performance was central,
so was learning (gurukul), making (karigarshala), and healing (nāda yoga)—each tied to
architecture in its original form, often as open courtyards, temples, or rural huts.

Music is tied to regional identities, oral traditions, and specific contexts like temples,
gurukuls, and royal courts. The making of musical instruments itself is a craft tradition,
often passed through generations with specific ritual, material, and community
knowledge.

Evolution of Traditional Indian Musical Inatruments

The UNESCO Convention (2003) on safeguarding intangible heritage highlights the
need for interactive spaces that support the continuity of traditional practices, not
just static preservation. Architecture can act as a living archive, facilitating
transmission through immersive and participatory environments.
 Need & Significance

1. Safeguarding Cultural Heritage

Indian instruments are a living legacy of thousands of years of music traditions —
from Vedic chants to classical ragas and folk expressions.
Each instrument carries stories, symbolism, and identity of its region and
community.

2. Revival of Indigenous Craftsmanship

Many instruments are handcrafted using traditional techniques by skilled
artisans.
Conservation supports these dying crafts and creates livelihoods for rural
artisans, helping to sustain local economies.

3. Loss Due to Globalization and Modernization

Western instruments and digital music have overshadowed traditional ones.
As demand drops, knowledge of playing, making, and tuning these instruments is
fading fast.

4. Importance for Musical Education

These instruments represent unique tonal qualities, playing techniques, and
spiritual philosophy.
Teaching them promotes holistic learning and connects students to diverse
musical roots.

5. Diversity and Identity

India’s musical instruments vary with region, language, and culture—from
Rajasthan’s kamaicha to Assam’s pepa.
Their preservation ensures inclusivity in representing India’s vast cultural mosaic.

6. Potential for Innovation

Reviving traditional instruments can lead to fusion music, acoustic research, and
modern design experiments, giving them new relevance and appeal.

7. Documentation for Future Generations

Without active efforts, these instruments may disappear from collective memory.
Preserving them means keeping them accessible to future generations for
performance, study, and inspiration.

[Link] of Communities:
It creates economic and social opportunities for instrument makers, musicians,
and scholars, especially in underrepresented folk and tribal cultures.
 Architectural Gaps in Existing Music-Related
Spaces

Problem Architectural Response

Create interactive galleries and experiential museums

Musical instruments are becoming disconnected from
where people can hear, touch, and understand
people
instruments through spatial storytelling

Design craft studios where makers can work in public

Instrument makers are marginalized
view, teach, and transfer knowledge

Include residencies, practice cells, and learning zones

Lack of music-learning spaces beyond institutions
for formal and informal training

Integrate meditative courtyards, sound domes,

Sound is healing, but not experienced in buildings
acoustic tunnels that explore music and silence

Design dynamic spaces that evolve with

Archives and museums are static
performances, seasons, and user interaction

Explore acoustically sensitive design — where form

Architecture is often visually driven
responds to sound rather than just sight

Current Issue:
Modern museums reduce them to visual objects; music schools abstract
their making; and craftspeople are often displaced from musical
narratives. This breaks the continuity between maker, player, and
learner—something an integrated space can restore.

Lack of Integrated Spaces:

There is currently no singular space in India that unifies the making,
teaching, displaying, and performing of all traditional Indian musical
instruments.
Architecture as a Medium

a. Multisensory Design Theories

According to Juhani Pallasmaa’s The Eyes of the Skin, architecture must move beyond visual
bias to embrace sound, touch, memory, and emotion. This aligns with musical experience, which
is deeply embodied and spatial.
Phenomenological studies show that users relate to music through not just hearing, but through
resonance, rhythm, and movement through space. Architectural elements like vaults, materials,
open-to-sky spaces, and courtyards have historically amplified or contained sound in temples
and gharanas.

b. Acoustic Architecture

Sound is form-sensitive. Research by Blesser and Salter in Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?
shows how material, geometry, and proportion affect auditory experience. This makes acoustic
zoning, sectional play, materiality, and buffer layering essential tools in architectural design for
music.

Examples:
Sufi dargahs with domed acoustics
South Indian temples with natural reverberation
Theatre forms like Yakshagana and Bhavai using semi-open performance courts
Thus, your project must consider passive acoustic design, material choice, and interactive
acoustic play through water bodies, textured walls, or musical pavilions.

Using performance-based spatial theory.

Invert the stage: make visitors participate in sound-making.
Create "sonic labs" where visitors interact with instruments
Allow for live demonstrations, jam sessions, and learning pods

Use architecture as instrument (e.g., walls that resonate, floors that

respond)
This creates a living museum + learning ground + performance hub +
maker space + healing retreat — all under one architectural vision.
 Case Studies

Musical Instrument Museum, Arizona

Method: Interactive display and archival documentation
Insight: While technologically rich, it lacks spatial soul or craft integration—the music
becomes passive.
Lok Kala Mandal, Udaipur
Method: Folk and performance preservation
Insight: Embraces regional performance forms, but lacks architectural coherence and user
interactivity.
Craft-based Design Spaces – NID, Dastkar Haat
Method: Live craft demonstration + user interaction
Insight: Demonstrates the value of integrated maker spaces for knowledge continuity.

Critical Gap:
Most spaces still isolate preservation (museums), performance (auditoria), learning (schools),
and making (workshops). There is no architectural model that unifies all these in one
emotional and sonic continuum.

Government Perspectives

Area Government Response Architectural Gap

Cultural Policy Strong (SNA, IGNCA, UNESCO) No spatial design integration

Focus on funding, archives, Limited on interactive, acoustic

Preservation
research spaces

Guru-shishya support, No modern architectural

Transmission
scholarships typology for learning

Digital museums, concerts, Lack of physical, participatory,

Engagement
documentation multi-use hubs

Despite significant policy support and documentation by the Ministry of Culture and
institutions like IGNCA and SNA, there is a noticeable lack of interactive architectural
spaces that embody the cultural and acoustic essence of traditional Indian musical
instruments. This thesis proposes an architectural intervention that fills the gap
between policy and place, creating a living space for musical preservation,
performance, and participatory learning."
Conclusion:

Toward a New Typology

The literature reveals a clear gap in architectural response to Indian
traditional musical instruments. While the cultural, sonic, and healing
values are well-documented, they remain underrepresented in physical
space.
Current institutions are functionally fragmented and emotionally
disengaged.
This review supports the development of a new interactive architectural
typology that:
Integrates learning, making, performing, and preserving
Makes the visitor a co-creator, not a passive audience
Engages acoustic, regional, and material intelligence
Creates emotionally charged, healing, and culturally rooted spaces