Jawahar Kala Kendra Case Study: Plan, Concept and Materials (Charles Correa)

Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) is the arts centre in Jaipur that Charles Correa designed for the Government of Rajasthan from 1986. Its plan is nine walled squares, one for each of the nine planets of the navagraha mandala, with an open stepped kund at the centre and one corner square moved out of line, the same move that shaped the plan of Jaipur itself. This case study covers the brief, site, concept, plan, section, materials, how the building has fared and what designers in India can take from it.

Jawahar Kala Kendra: the facts

Architect: Charles Correa (Charles Correa Associates, Mumbai). No structural engineer or other consultant is named in the sources we could open.

Client: Government of Rajasthan. The centre is run today by the state's Art and Culture Department.

Location: Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, opposite University Commerce College, Jaipur 302005.

Designed and built: design from 1986. Sources disagree on the finish: the Charles Correa Foundation and the Praemium Imperiale citation give 1986 to 1992; STIR and ArchEyes give construction as 1986 to 1991. JKK's own history page says the centre was established in 1993, the year Architectural Digest India says it opened its doors.

Type: multi-arts centre: galleries, a museum, theatres, an open-air theatre, a library, studios, dormitories and a coffee house, with the Shilpgram crafts village alongside.

Site: about 9.5 acres (3.8 ha), per ArchEyes and STIR. No floor area or dimensions of the squares are published in the sources we opened, so none are given here.

Status: in use and open to the public. Refurbished from 2015, with the galleries reopened in early 2017.

The brief: an arts centre for Rajasthan, dedicated to Nehru

The state government wanted a centre to keep Rajasthan's arts and crafts alive and to give artists, scholars and visitors one place to meet. JKK's About page lists what the building holds: an administrative block, an ethnographic museum (the Alankar Museum), temporary exhibition galleries, an open-air theatre, an air-conditioned theatre, an arena, a library, dormitories and a coffee house. The library has nearly 20,000 volumes, according to the centre's literature and library page.

The centre is named for Jawaharlal Nehru, and Correa built his concept on that dedication. The Charles Correa Foundation's project page pairs two men: Maharaja Jai Singh, who founded Jaipur, and Nehru, "born more than two centuries later". Both, in Correa's reading, looked back at India's past while opening a door to its future. Correa called Jai Singh "the first modern Indian, [who was] trying to discover the past while inventing a new future" (DesignCurial, 2015).

Site and context: Jaipur's nine squares

Jaipur dates from 1727, when Jai Singh II, the Raja of Amber, moved his capital to the plains. Rajasthan Tourism credits the architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya with laying out the city on the principles of Vastu Shastra. The same ruler built the Jantar Mantar, the stone instruments for tracking the sun and stars.

The walled city is usually described as a three-by-three grid of squares adapted to its site. ArchEyes gives the standard account: a hill stood on one corner square, so that square was moved to the east, and two squares were joined to hold the palace. The Kendra's plan refers back to that grid.

Jawahar Kala Kendra concept: the navagraha mandala

The concept is Correa's own, and he described it plainly. The Foundation's page says Jai Singh was moved by "two seemingly conflicting sets of mythic ideas": the ancient Navgraha, the mandala of the nine planets, and the new science of the Jantar Mantar. Jaipur, Correa wrote, is "double coded" in the same way, and so is the Kendra: "a contemporary building based on an archaic notion of the Cosmos", the same Navgraha mandala "with one of the squares moved aside, to recall the gesture that created the original plan for Jaipur".

So the plan carries three ideas at once:

The cosmos. Each of the nine squares belongs to one of the nine planets, including the two shadow planets, Rahu and Ketu. The centre belongs to the sun.
The city. The grid and its one displaced corner repeat the plan of Jaipur.
The empty centre. The middle square is not built on. DesignCurial links this void to the shunya, the idea of nothingness at the centre of temple plans laid out on a divided square.

Correa saw the Kendra as a companion to his Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune: the Foundation's essay on Correa and artists (Ashmita Gupta, 2024) says JKK gives a symbol for the idea of the cosmos, while IUCAA sought one for the expanding universe.

Jawahar Kala Kendra plan: nine squares and one moved aside

On plan, the Kendra is nine squares in a three-by-three grid, each enclosed by its own high wall. One corner square is pivoted out of the grid and, according to ArchEyes and Architectuul, it forms the entrance. The citation for Correa's 1994 Praemium Imperiale says each of the nine squares, plus the kund open to the air at the centre, "is under the sign of a different planet and colour", and each is given to a different aspect of Nehru's life.

The sources tie some programmes to particular planets:

Surya, the sun: the central kund, a stepped tank open to the sky that STIR describes as a place "of meeting and reflection". It is used as an open-air theatre.
Mangal, Mars: administration (STIR). The domed entrance foyer is in the Mangal Mahal, its dome painted with a Jain cosmograph (Charles Correa Foundation).
Guru, Jupiter: the library, since Jupiter stands for knowledge (STIR and JKK's Architecture of JKK page).
Shukra, Venus: the theatres, Venus being the sign of the arts (STIR).
Chandra, the moon: the coffee house, whose paintings, JKK says, extend even to the tables.

The remaining squares hold galleries (JKK lists six exhibition galleries), the Alankar Museum, studios and dormitories. Inside each square the rooms do not fill the box: Architectuul describes buildings that lean against the high walls or stand as separate groups, with small courts between them.

Two schematic nine-square diagrams side by side. Left: the walled city of Jaipur as a three-by-three grid in which one corner square, blocked by a hill, is shown moved to the east and two squares are joined to hold the palace. Right: Jawahar Kala Kendra as nine walled squares with an open stepped kund in the centre square, marked Sun, and one corner square rotated and moved aside. A legend lists the programme sources give for the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Moon squares. — Correa took the nine-square mandala that Jaipur was planned on and repeated its one irregular move: a corner square pushed out of the grid. Diagram: MOA

The diagram is schematic and does not show which planet sits in which square. For Correa's own floor plan and concept sketch, see the Charles Correa Foundation's project page, and the drawings credited to Charles Correa Associates on ArchEyes.

Jawahar Kala Kendra section: high walls, rooms within, sky at the centre

The section explains how the building is experienced. Each square is a closed box from outside: its walls are about 8 m high, according to ArchEyes and Architectuul, a reference to the fortification walls of old Jaipur. The outer faces have few openings. The Praemium Imperiale citation describes the centre as two storeys: inside the walls, rooms of one and two storeys are grouped around courts open to the sky.

At the centre, the kund steps down on all sides to a flat floor. A kund is a stepped tank; here, in the July 2022 photograph below, it holds a lawn and a round stone platform rather than water, and it gives the whole complex a shared outdoor room for performances.

Schematic cross-section through one planet square and the central kund of Jawahar Kala Kendra. A tall outer wall clad in red sandstone, marked about 8 metres, carries an inlaid planet symbol on its outer face. Inside, two-storey rooms lean against the wall, with a small open court and lower rooms beyond. Between this square and the next, the central kund steps down to a sunken performance floor that is open to the sky. — The section repeats one move: a closed sandstone wall outside, rooms and courts within, and the sky at the centre. Diagram: MOA

What the sources do not say: the structural system behind the cladding, the foundation design and the depth of the kund. We found no published structural description, so the diagram shows the principle only.

The central kund of Jawahar Kala Kendra: a sunken lawn with a round red sandstone platform at its centre, ringed by tiers of sandstone steps, enclosed by high walls clad in a grid of red sandstone panels; a white serpent-like symbol is inlaid in the far wall above a doorway, and a plain tower rises behind under a blue sky — The kund at the centre of the plan in July 2022, with stepped seating on all sides and a planet symbol inlaid in the sandstone wall. Photo: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jawahar Kala Kendra materials: red sandstone and inlaid symbols

Red sandstone cladding. The outer walls are faced in red sandstone, set in a regular grid of panels. The Praemium Imperiale citation calls it "red Agra sandstone"; DesignCurial notes that the red stone draws on the building traditions of Rajasthan. No quarry is named beyond that.
Planet symbols in the walls. Each square carries its planet's symbol, inlaid in white marble and granite on the sandstone facades, according to STIR and ArchEyes. On site they read as large white signs: a disc, a serpent, a star.
Red render within. Inside the walls, the blocks around the courts are rendered in red, with small windows, jaali vents and open stairs, as recent photographs show.
Murals and painted ceilings. Correa worked with artists. The Foundation's essay describes a large mural of Krishna in the Ketu square painted by local Rajasthani artists, a wall painting of a Hastkaar Yantra based on medieval Rajasthani paintings, and the Jain cosmograph on the entrance dome. Durganand Balsavar, writing in The Hindu after Correa's death (archived on Architexturez), called these the "awakened walls".

Our guide to building materials in Jaipur and Rajasthan covers sandstone, lime and jaalis for houses today, and our comparison of Kota, sandstone, granite and marble covers the stones themselves.

An inner court of Jawahar Kala Kendra: two-storey blocks finished in red plaster with small square windows and jaali vents, a stepped parapet, and an open external stair rising along a wall, on a stone-paved court under a blue sky — Inside the sandstone walls the blocks are rendered in red, with stairs, small windows and jaali vents around open courts (July 2022). Photo: Chainwit., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Light, climate and services

No published study measures how the building performs in Jaipur's heat, so this paragraph is our reading of the form. The outer walls are high and have few openings, so the sun falls on stone rather than glass. Light comes in from above and from inside: through courts open to the sky, through small windows and jaali vents, and through the central kund, the largest open space in the plan.

Services are not documented in the sources we opened. The galleries are air-conditioned today: JKK's current tender notices include maintenance of ductable and split air-conditioning units at the Alankar gallery.

Reception: praise, neglect and refurbishment

The 1994 Praemium Imperiale citation describes the Kendra as "a microcosm in itself". DesignCurial's obituary of Correa reads its corner square as "whimsically displaced" and its empty centre as the shunya. Artists who protested at the centre in 2017 said its design is "taught in the best Architecture colleges".

Its upkeep has been a different story. In dated order:

1993 to the 2010s: the centre opened in 1993. Architectural Digest India (archived on Architexturez, February 2017) wrote that the auditorium and galleries later "fell silent" and dust crept over the sandstone.
2015: the state government, under Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, decided to revive the centre. Homegrown (Amulya Chintaluri, 2021) says the work under Pooja Sood retouched the Jain murals and the dome paintings, improved access for disabled visitors, added a children's reading room to the library and upgraded the theatres' sound.
Early 2017: the refurbished galleries reopened on 20 January, according to Architectural Digest India (archived February 2017; the article gives no year), with an Ebrahim Alkazi retrospective among the first shows (Homegrown).
April 2017: about 150 artists protested at JKK against changes to its governing constitution. One of them, Shakir Ali, said the management had harmed the building by adding glass and plastic, materials Correa had avoided (Deccan Herald, archived on Architexturez).
2026: JKK's official site lists a tender for an architectural consultancy to prepare a detailed project report for redesigning the Shilpgram area next to the main building.

One more point for anyone writing the history: sources disagree on dates. Homegrown says JKK was established in 1991, while JKK's own history page says 1993, and the Praemium Imperiale page captions its photographs "1968-92", which looks like a misprint for 1986 to 1992.

What designers in India can take from Jawahar Kala Kendra

These are our reading, not claims from the sources.

Use a traditional diagram as a rule, then break it once, for a reason. Correa did not copy a Jaipur haveli or a temple. He took an abstract order, the nine-square grid, and kept its one irregularity because the city had it. In a studio or thesis, state the concept as a rule plus a deliberate exception, and you have something a jury can test against every drawing.
In a hot, dry city, close the outside and open the inside. High masonry walls, small openings and courts open to the sky give shade and calm without much glass. That idea scales down to a Jaipur house on a 30 by 60 ft plot: a solid street wall, a courtyard or light well, and rooms that look inward.
Plan the wall for the craftsperson from day one. The inlaid symbols and the murals were part of the design, not later decoration. For a public building in India, budget for local artists and stone inlay in the tender, and leave the wall surfaces they need.
Write down how the building should be kept. Within about twenty years of opening, JKK needed a major refurbishment, and some later additions drew public objection. A short maintenance and alteration note from the architect, covering stone cleaning, what may change and what must not, protects a public building after the architect leaves.

If you are documenting JKK for a studio, our guide to doing an architecture case study sets out what to measure and sketch on site, and cultural centres and museums appear in our B.Arch thesis topics by typology. Correa's Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal and his Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in Ahmedabad get their own case studies in this series.

Visiting Jawahar Kala Kendra and seeing the drawings

JKK is a working arts centre, open to the public, at Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, opposite University Commerce College, Jaipur 302005 (contact page). Its calendar lists exhibitions, plays and workshops. The annual Lok Rang festival of folk arts is held in October and November. Check the calendar for what is on before you go.

For study, walk the sequence: in through the displaced square, along the walls of each planet square, then down into the kund. Look at the symbols on each wall before you enter, and at the painted dome in the entrance foyer. Correa's drawings are not reproduced here; the Charles Correa Foundation's page and ArchEyes show the plan and concept sketch with credit to Charles Correa Associates.

Planning a building in Jaipur yourself? Find an architect on MOA.

FAQ

Who designed Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur?

Charles Correa, through his office Charles Correa Associates, for the Government of Rajasthan. He began the design in 1986.

When was Jawahar Kala Kendra built?

Design began in 1986. Construction is given as 1986 to 1991 by STIR and ArchEyes, and as 1986 to 1992 by the Charles Correa Foundation. The centre opened, and by its own account was established, in 1993.

What is the concept of Jawahar Kala Kendra?

It is based on the navagraha mandala of nine squares, one for each planet, with the sun at the centre as an open kund. One corner square is moved aside, as in the plan of Jaipur. Correa called it a contemporary building based on an archaic notion of the cosmos.

What material is used in Jawahar Kala Kendra?

The outer walls are faced in red sandstone, with each planet's symbol inlaid in white marble and granite. Inside, the blocks are rendered in red, and some walls and the entrance dome carry murals by Rajasthani artists.

Where is Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur?

On Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, opposite University Commerce College, Jaipur 302005.

Sources

Charles Correa Foundation: Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur 1986-92 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Charles Correa Foundation, Ashmita Gupta: Charles Correa: Working with Artists, 5 Sep 2024 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Jawahar Kala Kendra, Art and Culture Department, Government of Rajasthan: About Us, History of JKK, Architecture of JKK, Literature and Library, Contact Us and home page notices (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Praemium Imperiale (Japan Art Association): Charles Correa, Architecture, 1994 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Rajasthan Tourism, Government of Rajasthan: Jaipur (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
STIRworld: Charles Correa's Jawahar Kala Kendra is a revelation of the modernist's genius, 2 Sep 2019 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
ArchEyes: Jawahar Kala Kendra: Charles Correa's Arts Centre in Jaipur, 25 Jun 2024 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Architectuul: Jawahar Kala Kendra, 10 Oct 2020 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
DesignCurial: Charles Correa (1930-2015), 17 Jun 2015 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
The Hindu, Durganand Balsavar, via Architexturez: A fascination with the sky, archived 29 Jun 2015 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Architectural Digest India, via Architexturez: The dilapidated Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, designed by Charles Correa, gets a new lease of life, archived 23 Feb 2017 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Deccan Herald, via Architexturez: R'sthan: 150 artists stage protest against govt for altering constitution of JKK, archived 28 Apr 2017 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
Homegrown, Amulya Chintaluri: Inside Look: The Refurbished Jawahar Kala Kendra Is Stunning, 8 Jun 2021 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)