Centre for Innovation in Performing Arts (CIPA)

A 50,000 sqft cultural campus for the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts set on a sloping hillside overlooking a mango orchard, a tank, and the rocky hilltops of the Karnatakan landscape in Sulikere, Bangalore.

The design is grounded in the ancient practice of Kalaripayattu, whose training space is traditionally a pit carved into the ground, entered by descending, where the body trains in close contact with the earth. A sunken kalari studio anchors the centre of the complex, a space of core learning and discipline in which all activities of the campus are symbolically rooted. Its roof surfaces in the courtyard as a sculptural object of reverence, holding a meditative room within, while a gallery for the visual and performing arts winds tangentially past the pit, linking dance school and theatre.

The building follows the same logic as the kalari itself, stepping down through the terrain so that plaza, theatres, studios, and gallery each meet the earth. Practice studios crowned with curving ceilings open through deep alcoves to the orchard. A 500-seat theatre, a flexible 120-seat theatre, and an outdoor amphitheatre complete the programme.

Studio: flying elephant studio

Team: Amrit Phull, Rajesh Renganathan, Kunaal Mehta