Today, In order to send a parcel internationally I had to rush around to 2-3 post offices since My business got few customers and most of them are from other countries so I had to hazel around to get the orders fulfilled.
Actually professionally am an Architect but to fulfil my design passion in products, I opened a leather bag designing business.
So, running around in post offices I got to know many things. It will be an interesting journey as I would show you the best and outdated designs as well.
Let's begin with Meghdoot Bhavan
Usually post offices tend to be boring and old government structures, but this one got me in love with it. the modern sleek architecture, the majestic structure and sophisticated interiors were the forte.
Here postal services weren't available but this was a building for official purposes regarding P.O.
The large louvers structure was really impressive maintaining the simplicity of the façade the white and grey colour combination made it look quite sophisticated.
The grand entrance resembled the entrance of some hotel. The interior was ravishing though I couldn't click picture there due to restrictions and I was there for around few minutes. Due to lock down and rising covid situations, the postal services are halted which let me to finally go to central Delhi where the postal headquarters reside.
Gol Dak Khanna
This is the headquarters it's a circular building which is situated a junction of roads and it's in very high profile area of Delhi.
There was nothing too fantastic to notice or click pictures unlike Meghdoot bhavan, but being very old structure it was fascinating to notice quite a few stuff.
Let me start with the two most fascinating things-
The Doors
This building is just one storied with high ceilings. The doors are super old. but this pop of tinted coloured glass on entirely white building was really fascinating to observe. The doors being old had jali and glass fitted into single frame.
Okay! this door is not as fancy as the other one but if you observe it closely it do not have regular wall hinge!
I couldn't click pictures in detail but what I got was enough to make you all understand about the functioning of this door.
The hinges are connected on the top of the frame to swing the door.
Allow me to go little out of context and show a picture of another crazy old and classic door I have seen-
It's oldest handicraft shop in Bangalore and it's quite antique. Why I call it unique because of the long and large hinge of the door. It was super unique and very rare to witness these days.
And so was the different door hinge of the Post office. Let's continue-
It was quite evident that this tin canopy with truss was built recently and was not the part of the structure initially. Actually this is the back side officers room the canopy connects the main circular block to it's other ring where all the postal services takes place.
Being my first time I had a good experience than expected as there was no rush very few people due to ongoing lockdown. we wore double masks and covered ourselves from head to toe later took a shower at home. Safety is priority.
The building covers a large area arguably and was under maintenance. I could see some walls were white washed and some weren't. May be lockdown might have halted the workflow!
I went to just one block of the building and what I found was lobbies to be quite compact and not wide enough for smooth passage which should never be the case in such public buildings. Moreover the structure was quite old but seemed sturdy.
This typical arch entrance is huge evidence of this structure being too old but with little more maintenance it would be super aesthetic.
Could easily spot some areas freshly build. I could see why this section didn't got a white wash and completed. The addition of pitch or gable roof is new and interesting feature.
This being single stories it was hard to capture images of the exterior as it's mid of a busy road's junction and mostly covered with tress and plants so I got little glimpse captured -
Concluding with limited glimpse of exterior I would just say that it was such an interesting experience visiting a modern +new and old+classic building on same day. Such simple building may have lot to capture. After all it's our interest and observation which makes the world a happy place for us.
There may have been times when you have encountered such simple and yet amazing architectural views. Have your experience been interesting?
