A state-of-the-art incubation center supporting small to medium enterprises in Tier 2 & 3 districts of India, JEC-P aims to create a district enterprise ecosystem that will usher an era of enterprise led development in Purvanchal by connecting enterprises, experts, mentors and market partners. Besides providing on-ground support through its Udyam Corps leaders, it is intended to provide access to Jagriti’s network for mentoring and market connect.
It center is planned at Barpar in Deoria around a 200-year-old Banyan tree, which has been an inspiration for Jagriti’s values as well as its logo. And Phase I (south block) construction started in January 2021.
Designed by architect Trupti Doshi, the Center is the first of its kind incubation center beyond metros, supporting small and medium entrepreneurs through world class services and facilities.
The architecture of an organizational building tells a story, in addition to attracting visitors, bringing people together and shielding against elements. Same is the case with JEC-P. It is designed to spur action, by marrying opposites—combining thought and action; masculine and feminine; and technology and tradition. It evokes an Indian past rich with traditions and inventions, and provides a suitable playground for further innovations. It is, in fact, a showcase of architectural shift for an India at 75. It rejects Cartesian linear imagination of a Le Corbusier, or the Ionic Greek columns brought in through the west. It departs from the ornate buildings post-independence that continued a colonial tradition and takes exception to the 60s imagination of Louis Kahn, where India’s architecture was consigned to brick-built traditions. Lines of the building are uncluttered, inviting us to drop our differences and come together for democratic action. Long glass windows in the multipurpose hall glint with transparency, and the clean texture of its walls symbolizes friction-free enterprise
The building is planned in such a way that it can anticipate unknown corners Middle India will have to navigate in its journey ahead, confident in the company of a 300-year-old Banyan tree. Its spiral, clean curvature represents new exponential aspirations of Middle India, while hinting that the path ahead will be anything but straightforward. Its sweep originates from and embraces the giant Banyan tree, which acts as a fulcrum, providing JEC-P both- balance and contrast. And serves as an organic lens—focusing attention and energy of the main building, visually, spiritually and environmentally.
The architecture of the building is rooted in its surroundings.
The amphitheater steps to the water body adjoining the Banyan are reminiscent of a walk to the Ghats of Varanasi, 200 km due south. The Banyan itself a stage for that most famous of stories- the Ramayana, first told by Shiva from under a Vatvriksha (Banyan Tree) on Mount Kailash. A poetic talent from Purvanchal, Tulsidas, made that story accessible to the masses through Ramcharitmanas. Zen Buddhism inspires a symbolic architectural gap in the three main blocks, hinting at the large statue of Buddha curled up in nearby Kushinagar, where he attained Nirvana. The highest point of the building, a digital library, is deliberately lower than the Banyan tree- an homage to Kabir’s wisdom, as he roamed these lands. A giant hand- embroidered mural, made by over a thousand local women, reminds us that Laxmi Bai, born in Purvanchal is an inspiration for every Indian girl even now. A hundred-foot-high flag, in line-of-sight of the Banyan tree, traces the linearity of that bullet fired by Mangal Pandey of nearby Ballia, that sparked our journey of independence in 1857.
If the architecture of Le Corbusier emoted the industrial focus of the Europe of mid-30s and 40s, the architecture of JEC-P building brings to the fore a human centered development to the real India. On India’s 75th anniversary, the opening of this center is a statement of new freedom. It pushes forth the ideal we learned and solidified in circling the country in a train viz. development will accelerate only by allowing an individual, a team, a family, or even a region to follow its own genius. Through enterprise. Not copy one that is secondhand or imposed by an unsympathetic outsider.
The story JEC-P tells is one of combining local energy, aspiration, with the catalytic role of the outsider. Of Yatris who have visited this location, soaked the shade of the Banyan, and indelibly left their mark as 5,400 names inscribed on marble.
These two energies will influence JEC-P, the most-