The Story Precedes the Plan

Jaipur was laid out in 1727 on a nine square plan drawn from a mandala. Project Mandala takes the city towards its three hundredth year by returning to that pattern and asking what it offers now: nature, creativity, renewal and public life held in one figure.

Every place has a version of this. A canal line, a pilgrimage route, a market day, a wind direction, a family of trees. The strongest plans are usually recoveries rather than inventions.

We write the story before we draw, and we publish it. A plan that can be told is a plan that can be approved, funded, staffed and remembered.