The idea of “Excellence” faces the unique challenge of having to re-assess building practices that are assumed to be “good” but are in fact proponents of the same system that harm life on earth. Therefore, the Centre of Excellence of the Council of Architecture in India must devote itself to the search for the Good Building Practices of our day. Building on Gandhi’s Idea of Satya-Agraha, this “insistence on truth” translates into an insistence on the search for Building Well. This building must demonstrate ways of building that cause least damage to the environment, while itself being a place to further research better ways to make built environments.

The team recognizes through collaboration with collective thinking projects of this scale can be conceived and constructed. Many Minds working together bring multiplicity to play at various levels in the project envisioned as a neighborhood with a non-institutional character. Buildings respond to the terrain and each other diversely surrounding to become a backdrop to the vital life in the center.