The Hathi Gaon project in Jaipur, India aims to develop housing for 200 mahout families and their elephants. Designed by Rahul Mehrotra Architects with a focus on ecology and landscape, the residential clusters are arranged around communal courtyards. Elephants are housed in rooms attached to the buildings with exits away from the courtyards. The landscape and water bodies are central to the design, facilitating bonding between mahouts and elephants through bathing. The project also aims to create a visitor center showcasing mahout and elephant culture.

1. A VISIT TO HATHI GAON, JAIPUR
Department of Sustainable Architecture,
Central University of Rajasthan

2. HATHI GAON: A Project where elephant is the client
• Visitors can ascend the
sinuous road to Amber
Fort, Jaipur by car, foot,
or elephant. This last
means affords the best
vantage point to soak in
the grandeur with the
slow steps of the
elephant.
• This gigantic animal obeys to one person only, its
Mahout. The elephant and the mahout are the least
thought off beings outside of being useful as
mediums for entertainment.
• Hathi Gaon, is a project which is designed with the
elephant and mahout as the clients.

3. Introduction
• The project focuses on developing housing for
the mahouts and their families.
• Its intended as both a residential complex for 200 and a
tourist destination in its own right
• Its designed by Rahul Mehrotra Architects.

4. • Political factors have stretched the Hathigaon project to four
years, and counting. It will take around 3 years more to open
the visitors centre.
• The architect
Rahul
Mehrotra
ensured that
certain details
that affected
quality of life,
such as the
infrastructure
and design of
the water
bodies,
matched the
original plan
without
compromise.

5. Residential Units
• The dwellings are small—200
square feet—and arranged in sets
of four, wrapped around
communal courtyards.
• The housing units are organized
in clusters and situated on
portions of the site that are not
used for the landscape
regeneration.
• The elephants are housed in
garage-like rooms with exits on
the outer, non-courtyard-facing,
sides of the buildings.
• The families can customize their
dwellings as they wish, including
enclosing the rooftop terrace to
add living space.

6. Ecology as the main concept
• The architect has focused on
creating a tropical environment
for the elephants, with the help
of water bodies , pathways and
forest area.
• Unlike other architecture
projects, this project has
landscape as the centre and
architecture has evolved around
it.
• focusing on the landscape and
using the precious resource of
water as the central instrument
around which decisions were
facilitated

7. Water as a centre
• The water body was a critical
component of the design, as it also
facilitated the bonding between
the mahout and elephant, through
the process of bathing – an
important ritual both for the health
of the elephant as well as their
attachment to their keeper.

8. Architect Mohan S. Rao
•
He is the only landscape architect from India, thus far,
to have been recognized with an international award.
http://www.arborsbythelake.com/abtl_expertise_landscape_architect.
html
• Mohan S Rao. a Landscape Architect
from the SPA, Delhi and the Founder of
INDE (1994).
• He leads the design team of all projects
and his involvement extends from
Master Planning to schematic design
through construction detailing.
• He is keenly involved with Academics
and has served on numerous juries and
lectures.
• Also, he is an active participant in the
public forum of sustainable design and
development issues.

9. Ar. Rahul Mehrotra
• Trained at the School of
Architecture, Ahmedabad, and the
Graduate School of Design at
Harvard University. He has been in
private practice since 1990, and
works on architecture, urban design
and conservation projects.
• Professor Mehrotra is Executive Director of the
Urban Design Research Institute, which promotes
awareness and research on the city of Bombay.