SETTLEMENT STUDY
(Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Jaipur-Chandigarh)
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HIERARCHY OF VISIONS
Spaces through Frames
My experience of these spaces was shaped by a continuous Hierarchy of Vision, the way each place guided the eyes with deliberate vantage points, controlled frames, and shifting depths that guided me where to stand, what to look at, and how far to see. This hierarchy was embedded into materials, into planning, into the smallest details of thresholds and openings.
In Agra, The Taj Mahal doesn’t frame your vision through openings, it frames it through symmetry and distance. The more you walk towards it, the more it decides your scale. The monument becomes the only thing your eye settles on. Even the gardens act like a slow reveal. Everything aligns to that one central dome, creating a singular, commanding vantage point.
In Fatehpur Sikri, the space was already framing things. Standing under the arches, felt like each opening was a viewfinder. The vantage points were created by thickness of walls, staggered platforms, and the play between open pavilions and enclosed courts.
Then came Jaipur’s forts, where hierarchy of vision becomes topographical. The hills, the fort walls, the rising paths, the terraces that open into huge landscapes, here the vantage points are about height, and looking outward.
Chandigarh felt like stepping into a completely different visual language. Instead of carved openings or thick walls, the concrete frames are clean, sharp and modernist. The hierarchy of vision here comes through planning, symmetrical sectors, disciplined road widths, clear pedestrian paths. Even in places like JKK, I noticed how small architectural details, a stepped railing, a curved column head continue this idea of guiding vision. The frames are subtle, but still present everywhere.
Across all these places, one thing remained consistent: Every space has its own way of telling you where to look first, where to pause, and where to move next. Hierarchy of vision is not just about arches or openings, it’s also about how materials catch light, how shadows settle, how landscapes open up, how planning decides your direction, and how your own body relates to the scale around you. It becomes both a physical and sensory reading of space. The feeling of being constantly guided, sometimes gently, sometimes powerfully by the architecture itself.
Across Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur and Chandigarh, one idea kept returning to me was how the way spaces reveal themselves through frames and vantage points. These frames created anticipation by revealing only a part of the whole and connected human scale to the monumental scale around.
The arch acts as the main frame, guiding the eye to the arches and human activity in the courtyard.
Vantage point emphasizes the layered thresholds: interior → semi-open arcade → open courtyard.
Showing how Mughal architecture choreographs movement through rhythms of shade and brightness.
A dense ornamental jali frames a single clear opening toward the courtyard.
The small window focuses attention on the landscape beyond the pattern.
The intricate jali overwhelms the eye, but the rectangular frame anchors the gaze toward the courtyard below.
The repeating door frames form an endless visual tunnel.
This symmetry shows how architecture guides sight through aligned axes.
The pointed arch frames the colonnade hall beyond.
Shows the contrast between the dark interior and the illuminated stone columns gives the sense of depth.
A sequence of arches creates layered frames pulling the eye inward, highlighting how Mughal spaces guide movement through framing.
Layered platforms create a visual hierarchy, revealing a new layer of the palace.
The colonnades frame the arches, guiding the eye through depth and symmetry.
Glass panels create overlapping layers of old arches and new frames.
The red-tinted frame forms the first frame leading the eye toward the door which has warm yellow space with niches in the wall.
The alignment of multiple doorways/frames draws the viewer deeper into the composition.
It shows a dynamic movement of light across space.
Colored jali windows cast shifting patterns of light on the floor.
Multiple doorways/frames creates rhythmic spaces.
FATEHPUR SIKRI
The pavilion shifts between grand openness and intimate low ceilings, reminding you of your own height in relation to the space. The low beams and closely spaced columns bring the scale down to the human body.
JAIPUR
LAC BANGLES OF JAIPUR
Lac bangles have been a part of Jaipur’s craft identity, found in the old market lanes of Jaipur. They use lac which is warm, resin-like material and when they heat it, it becomes soft like rubber. The artisan just rolls it, twists in the colors, cuts it, and shapes it around a metal rod and it becomes this glossy swirl of a bangle found in variety of shapes, design and color. The setup includes, just a small table, a chulha-like heating pit, and tools that look like they’ve been used for years.
JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA
A central column with layered rings supports the circular slab, reducing the span of curved beams.
The stepped circular form becomes both structural and sculptural, anchoring the entire space.
The railing having a staircase form, keeping a visual rhythm that ties all levels together.
This stepped geometry creates continuity.
The column of the canteen space extends into a low height wall, which becomes a seat. People sit beside it, on it, around it, making it a social space .
CHANDIGARH
NEK CHAND'S ROCK GARDEN
The railing blends stones and cement in a way that feels almost organic. Its rough, hand-molded texture becomes a material expression of the garden’s crafted-by-hand character.
The seating follows a single standard riser height, with extra thickness only where people sit.
The exposed metal rod reveals how the Rock Garden’s roots and other details are actually held together with internal reinforcements under layers of cement and texture.
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