Indian architecture studio Nudes has designed the meandering BookWorm pavilion to encourage reading among children and adults.

Located in the gardens of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum in Mumbai, the BookWorm pavilion has been built as a response to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal that all youths and a substantial proportion of adults achieve literacy by 2030.

Rather than mirror the potentially intimidating or inaccessible spaces of libraries, schools and museums, the pavilion was designed to be a "fun and welcoming space" open to all.

"The aim was to create a book-scape of sorts which invites children to explore and learn simultaneously," explained the studio.

"We wanted to make reading a fun activity, encourage children to pick books and read, irrespective of language."

The 35-metres-long pavilion winds its way through the museum gardens.

It is made of two simple, modular structures based on wooden ladders that stretch outward to create undulating forms at either side of a central pathway.

Built from around 3,600 wooden components, these ladders house both shelf and seating areas for storytelling sessions, offering unique views out across the museum gardens while providing space for approximately 12,000 books.

Underneath, areas of dappled shade are created by these bookshelves that enable the pavilion to be experienced from the "inside-out", creating more intimate and secluded reading spaces.

The modular design, which was prefabricated before being constructed on-site in one week, was created to make the pavilion easy to demount and rebuild on different sites across India.

"We are hoping that the BookWorm travels across the country in both rural and urban areas, spreading the message of 'empowerment through education,'" said the studio.

The pavilion will remain on display at the CSMVS Museum gardens until December 2019, after which all of the books will be donated to NGOs and children who would otherwise be unable to access reading material. The pavilion will source new books from its next location.

The project was supported by the Priyarsi Art Gallery in Mumbai as well as the CSMVS Museum.

Nudes was founded by Nuru Karim, who previously worked at Zaha Hadid Architects. The practice has previously experimented with similar flowing, modular forms for an unbuilt proposal for a school in Malawi, as well as in a project for a cafe in Mumbai featuring curved forms made from sculpted corrugated cardboard.

Photography is by Sameer Chawda.

Project credits

Architect: Nudes
Design team: Nuru Karim (Founder & Design Principal Nudes), Aditya Jain, Dhruval Shah, Salai V, Jenish Merchant, A Aravind, Supriya Dubey