Design
What's Next For New Delhi's Pragati Maidan?
With the dust barely settled from a controversial demolition, the Indian government has its sights on what might be the most ambitious plans in the history of independent India.
When the Hall of Nations—a modernist icon of New Delhi—was razed to the ground in April, the move was decried by many within India’s architectural community. One group, which includes the architect and engineer who designed the structure almost half a century ago, declared the demolition to be “an act of outrage.”
As I detailed for CityLab just weeks before the Hall of Nations was torn down, the building was commissioned by the Indian government to host the country’s first major international trade fair in 1972. It also served as a symbol of the country’s progress as a nation 25 years after independence.