“Perfume Park and Museum” is a skill development Centre, designed as a part of the twin city agreement between the city of Grasse (France) and Kannauj (India).

Kannauj, also known as the “perfume capital of India” has been a perfumery town for thousands of years. This craft is handed over from generations to generations. Some families have been making perfume for 300 years with the 30th generation still practicing the craft. This project has a single focus of promoting this age old tradition along with giving a high degree of visibility to the city of Kannauj.

Perfume Park and Museum is spread over 41.55 acres along the 6 lane Lucknow-Agra expressway. The design brief focuses on a development of flower beds, perfume museum along with a shop and cafe, skill development center and distilleries. It is an amalgamation of interaction cum leisure space.

The design looks at reflecting the essence of a perfumery, thereby imbibing the underlying principle of a flower, to create a project that is reminiscent of flowers but not a literal translation. Fibonacci series was looked upon as the design principle with the museum being the focal point of the development radiating out into the flower beds. One base grid where the volumes and flower beds emerge to create a seamless experience and a fluid circulation. The spiraling nature of this mathematical pattern creates radiating paths leading to the museum.

As the pattern exponentially becomes bigger, it radiates away from the center providing with an opportunity for flower beds next to museum and bigger sized plots at the edges, which are used for green houses and distilleries within the same system.

Museum building is designed as a flower with three petals. These three wings accommodate a museum, the second wing an auditorium and workshop and the third wing a souvenir shop along with a cafe. A seamless continuous movement loop is provided in the building along the periphery so visitors are not missing out any area also ensuring view of the park from the inside. A large cantilever for shading has been designed with the pattern of the flower beds projected on the ceiling. This creates a fuzzy boundary condition which lets the view extend into the flower beds of the perfume park and blending the landscape with built.

The museum roof dips down in the center allowing visitors to access the roof. This creates a vantage point for visitors to look over the flower beds radiating out and creating a fluid design.

Movement on the site is directed towards the perfume museum creating it as the focal point of the complex so visitors are drawn towards the building. The base grid creates the flower beds and extends into the museum creating a seamless interaction between the built and landscape. Foliage is designed along the paths to create shading while strolling through the flower fields. Green houses, distilleries and skill development center are proposed at the periphery of the site.