The Salt Mount — Realization

The permanent lighting project for the Salt Mount, the emblematic monument of the Dandi Kutir museum in Gandhinagar, capital of Gujarat, embodies the poetic vision of the project’s lead architect. The ambition was to transform this monumental structure, 41 metres high and 90 metres in diameter, into a landmark of meditation, bathed in a soft and subtle light evoking moonlight. This luminous presence invites visitors into nocturnal contemplation, in homage to the Salt March led by Mahatma Gandhi, to whom this museum, India’s largest museum dedicated to a single individual, is devoted.

Rising gently into the night, the Salt Mount is illuminated through high-precision optics ensuring optimal visual comfort and a total absence of light pollution. This respectful approach allows visitors to immerse themselves fully in the serene atmosphere of the site, which asserts itself as both a spiritual and cultural landmark.

The landscaped surroundings and peripheral pathways are lit with the same discretion and harmony, so that the eye remains naturally drawn towards the Salt Mount while offering walkers a reassuring and soothing nocturnal environment. Through this elegant and measured intervention designed by Atelier dada, the Salt Mount becomes a place of calm and reflection, a luminous landmark paying tribute to the timeless values embodied by Gandhi.

Once a year, during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, a major institutional and economic event attracting many local and international visitors, a video mapping show imagined by Atelier dada as early as 2012 is projected in 3D onto the Salt Mount. Designed to narrate the key moments of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and vision, as well as India’s evolution since independence, this show, presented since the museum’s inauguration in 2019, continues to meet with strong success among visitors and remains a source of deep satisfaction for Atelier dada.

Inauguration video of the video mapping projected onto the Salt Mount, Dandi Kutir Museum, 2019.
YouTube channel: CMO Gujarat
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2eIzwAZjPU