Grand Plans - Lotus Foundation

SPIRITUAL WELL BEING

Darbar Sahib
The spiritual centre of the Gurdwara where the 11th and eternal Guru of the Sikhs – Shabad Guru Sahib Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaaj – resides. The phrase “Darbar Sahib”, the word Darbar means Court and so the terms together refers to the “Guru’s Court”. This has been designed as a lotus flower to personify the spiritual and temporal status of Guru Ji within the earthly world.
Darbar Entrance
We wanted to create a universal experience that channel people’s spirituality through the uses of physical spaces. Here two bridges cross over a surrounding pond with connect the Foyer and Langar Hall to the Darbar Sahib.
Langar Hall
The community hub of a Gurdwara started by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The concept of Langar is designed to uphold the principle of equality between all people of the world regardless of religion, caste, colour, creed, age, gender or social status. Free food is prepared and cooked by volunteers and all who visit the Gurdwara are served. This is a place for people to eat together without prejudice.
Langar Kitchen
A social focal point for women and men to volunteer their time to prepare Langar for all visitors to the Gurdwara. The focus group feedback stressed that for convenience of preparing langar, a fully equipped kitchen with large cookers and full cooking utensils would allow for accommodating a
larger congregation at wedding or Sikh Gurpurbs. The position of preparing langar, to serving langar to washing and storing should be carefully planned such that it increases levels of hygiene and removes the burden of poor movement.
Lobby & Main Corridor
Most lobby areas create bottlenecks so taking this into account we have tried to preserve the free-flow nature of the building in a way that displaces visitors easily to different functions of the complex. This will house mobile exhibitions of community art and notice boards that notify
the community of how and what things are being run inside the complex. This will be the only area for shoes to be taken off before entering the Darbar Sahib. As mentioned in the focus group feedback, lockers for personal belongings and shopping and change machines for donating will be situated here too.
Ladies & Mens Toilet
These have been situated away from the main foyer area to control foot traffic and provide privacy for the nature of usage. Being harder for elderly with mobility problems to maintain proper hygiene, a dedicated easy access and easy to wash facility will be added within the toilets.
Marriage Registrar Room
This will not only accommodate the registrar but include adequate space for the wedding couple and family to legally consent their marriage. Prior to the marriage ceremony this space will be used by the bride whilst she awaits to enter the Darbar Sahib.
Management Committee Office
Often hidden in many existing buildings, we see the office and management committee members needing to be readily accessible to the community. And from the members point of view being able to monitor operations of the Complex from a central viewpoint.
Spiritual Booths™
These are tranquil hubs where individuals of any faith can find personal sanctuary and meditate our take time out for personal reflection. These booths are accessed from the main corridor but face out over the internal pond and towards the Darbar Sahib.
Entrance & Nishaan Sahib area
The first point of entry is a circular open-top fort enclosure surrounding the Nishaan Sahib (the Sikh Holy flag hoisted outside every Sikh Gurdwara). This has 4 entry points signifying people from all directions and walks of life are welcome.
Verandah Walk
A dedicated passage with glass topped wooden truss structures. The verandah type entrances will also serve their own purpose in providing rain and wind shelter and become an ideal shade during summer. Verandah Corridor links
These are glass topped wooden truss structures which are the only links to the two external buildings and private entry to the small cube office space.
Small Office Space
Rental office space in 5 x 5m cubes.These can be divided further if needed.

MENTAL WELLBEING

Faith Centre/Library
Housing a Sikh library and information resources in the gallery, this will be an open plan space for holding multi-faith events, scholarly debates, exhibiting art displays and quiet reading.
Classrooms
These would be used for Punjabi classes on the weekend and adult learning from college outreach programmes on all other times.
IT Learning Quarters
Not confined to fixed space these quarters will be fixed IT units defined by room dividers which allow either different usages at the same time (learning or internet) or allow different ages at the same time (eldery, youth, adults)
Sitting Area
Not only will this be for different communities to sit and engage but also used for learning purposes as a place for reading groups.
Large Flexible Office Space
Rental office space in 10 x 10m cubes. These can be divided further if needed
Residential Flats/Travellers Rest Rooms
Several groups highlighted the need for residential block for Giani’s, which would double up as a traveller’s rest room for those who needed shelter or congregations attending for national and international programmes.
Crèche/Day Nursery
This would provide mothers with an alternative option to using existing crèche facilities. It is also becoming more common now for grandparents to look after their grandchildren during the weekdays. The crèche would provide a safe and secure place for grandparents to drop off their grandchildren for a few hours while they attended the Gurdwara or took the opportunity to self-develop with the other activities.

PHYSICAL WELL BEING

Fitness Gym
This will include fitness and weight machines with sauna/ spa/hydrotherapy facilities.
Music Academy
Another key requirement was developing an academy for classical music and traditional folklore with a sound recording suite for grass roots artists.
Games Hub
This will act as the common room for young people and will combine lounge facilities with popular games.
Physio & First-Aid Room
As this will be a large complex, it is important to have dedicated facility for personal injury especially with the number of physical activities being offered.
Sports Café/Vegetarian Restaurant
This will be a social enterprise bringing together volunteers with catering and business skills that will serve both for café-lounge and restaurant audiences.
Sports/Community Hall
This is a multi-functional hall for indoor sports/gymnasium activities, performing arts and community hall hire.
Community Kitchen
This will serve ideally for external catering either by families or specialist and the preparation of food for the sports café/Vegetarian restaurant enterprise.

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Garden Space
Having open space for wedding milni’s (bride & grooms family introductions) would definitely help reduce sangat bottlenecks. It is for this reason that a large courtyard structure was suggested outside the Gurdwara building with ample gardens and fountains as an attraction to allow the congregation to utilise other parts of the complex. The addition of benches in this area would appeal those taking a stroll and also accommodate the elderly around a spiritual abode
Car Park space
Separating car traffic from the congregation through an adequate sized driveway leading into the premises will avoid the panic associated with members wanting to leave the premises without being surrounded by crowds of people.

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