Pritzker Prize: How the Bihar Museum breaks the mould

The Bihar Museum is India's first building designed by a recepient of the Pritzker Prize, dubbed the Nobel Prize for architecture. Manavi Kapur finds out what truly makes it a benchmark

A  museum should not be a fixed, one-time activity. It should be a dynamic space that keeps improving on its collections,” Anjani Kumar Singh, Bihar’s chief secretary, says emphatically. It is this strident, bold tenor that defines almost every conversation about the newly opened Bihar Museum in Patna. In fact, the entire project to conceptualise, build and create the museum exudes this unprecedented confidence. And, the biggest feather in its cap is its chief architect, Fumihiko Maki, who has the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture to his credit. The Bihar Museum is India’s first building designed by the Pritzker winner