The Mumbai-based firm founded in 1992 by Sanjay and Nina Puri has built this spiral-shaped community center, crowned with a green roof, that gives views of the surrounding desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Located in Moolwas, it was designed to also serve surrounding villages in the district of Nokha, and it includes an amphitheater, a library, and a museum, all presenting an undulating facade of locally sourced sandstone.

Drawing from dunes and India’s traditional courtyards, the curvilinear volumen rises and whirls from ground level in the northeast to a height of nine meters, forming an tiered amphitheater. Other spaces for meetings and events are placed within a rectilinear block situated at the entrance on the north side, which features a cafeteria and toilets.

Temperatures range between 35 and 40 degrees Centigrade for eight months a year, and the project addressed this. The facades combine closed spaces protected from the sun with triangular screens perforated with decorative patterns, designed to play with light and shade. Plants help to mitigate heat. A system for collecting and recycling rain water is incorporated into the roof’s inclined planes.