National War Memorial Museum

The process

Research

I looked at how the existing museums are talking about war

Research

Some questions I asked war correspondent and retired colonel

My takeaways

According to my understanding, these museums are trying to instill sense of pride, patriotism, nationalism by glorifying the wars won. What I noticed was that none of these museums talked about how difficult is for a soldier to go through a war or how they view it. The museum didn’t talk about rehabilitation for them or how would they find a job after a battle. These museums didn’t highlight the effect of a particular war on the surrounding villages and damages done to it due to violence.

Context

While the site for the museum has been decided, in same area the long path from Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate is being rebuilt. The Central Government has decided to construct a new Parliament building, Prime Minister’s house and other government buildings in this stretch and destroying Lutyens Delhi. It’s all being done in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic.

As the old saying goes, “whoever builds a new city in Delhi will lose it” ~ City of Djinns.

Context

Mission Statement

The museum’s mission is to invite artists and designers to build experiences, through any media, of ethical dilemmas that would question ones stance on war and conflict, question the notion of “winning” the war, question the meaning of patriotism thats coming from the war etc. It aims to conduct workshops, especially for the age group of 17-23, on multiple topics like global citizenship, diversity, intersectional identities etc. The mission is also to provide assistance and resources for help to those who are affected by wars and conflicts.

Mission statement

Vision Statement

The museum’s vision is to shape a future where wars are not used to instill pride, nationalism or patriotism but it is seen as a failure of empathy, humanity and diplomacy.

Vision Statement

Narrative Matrix

Visualisations

Visualisation

Please click the following sketches for better view and descriptions.

Visitor flow plan

Visitors can choose to enter from any two pathways. This is done, so that people who have PTSD from the war or conflict, may not want to experience it again, can choose an alternative pathway.

The narrative of the museum is non linear so the visitors can go or not go to any exhibit they like.

Visitor flow plan