Where do we come from? 

Where are we heading? 

The last place you’d expect to be reminded of these existential realities is in a park. 

But brace yourself for it at the Sensorium Memorial Park in Uttarakhand. As architect Monik Shah (32), Co-Founder of the firm ‘Compartment S4’, which designed the public park, explains, the map ensures that visitors enter and exit at the same point. “It almost mimics the circle of life,” he says. In fact, there’s even an installation at the end of the trail that is an ode to the philosophical concept. 

“The larger philosophy is that one needs to trace the same route they did growing up, as they do while they are growing old, which is why the visitor walks the same length while entering as they do while exiting,” Monik explains. 

But even while the park is a public space, it demands a certain degree of respect and reverence. The reason for this lies in the British-era cemetery that the park is built around, with over 200 graves dating back to the 1850s. 

Pine trees cocoon it, and within this peaceful envelope, Monik’s team was briefed to create an accessible site. Monik explains, “We wanted to honour the site's ecological and historical significance through minimal yet impactful interventions.”

Stepping........

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