Aux-Siah Bagh: A Subterranean Garden That Mirrors the Taj Mahal in Darkness

What if the most powerful response to one of history's greatest monuments is not another monument, but a void? Aux-Siah Bagh, the Garden of Black, takes the centuries-old legend of Shah Jahan's unrealized Black Taj Mahal and refuses to build it. Instead, the project descends. It carves a contemplative subterranean garden into the earth across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal, transforming myth into a spatial meditation on paradise, reflection, and the relationship between light and darkness.

Designed by Udit, Norman Wei, Franklin, and Ekta Rakholiya, this shortlisted entry for The Black Taj competition reimagines Shah Jahan's fabled twin to the Taj Mahal not as a dark marble counterpart but as a spiritual inversion. The site aligns with the Taj Mahal across the river, connected visually and symbolically, while the architecture itself unfolds entirely below grade, a sequence of layered experiences that move visitors from the tangible world into something transcendent.

Descending into the Dome: A Concrete Oculus and the Weight of Solitude

The interior perspective reveals the project's emotional core. A curved concrete dome rises overhead, punctured by a single circular skylight that pours a column of light onto the floor below. A solitary figure stands at the base, dwarfed by the geometry. The space functions as what the designers call the Void of Contemplation, a silent chamber representing Shah Jahan's internal meditation and grief. There are no ornamental surfaces, no decorative tiles. The material is raw, the light is singular, and the architecture asks visitors to simply be still. The circular opening at the apex does double duty: it frames the sky as a kind of mirror, reversing the Taj Mahal's iconic dome by pulling the heavens downward rather than reaching toward them.

Spiral Geometry: Unwinding the Charbagh into a New Dimension

The axonometric drawing exposes the project's organizational logic. A spiral dome structure sits at the center, surrounded by concentric rings of garden beds and reflecting pools. The Mughal Charbagh typology, traditionally a flat, symmetrical four-part garden, gets reinterpreted here in section rather than plan. The descent is the design move: visitors enter through pathways flanked by filtering ponds and terraced greens, gradually spiraling inward and downward toward the core pavilion. Circular geometry replaces the orthogonal grid, symbolizing infinity rather than earthly order.

The plan and section drawings clarify the concentric organization. A central oculus anchors the symmetrical garden layout, with water channels radiating outward in four directions, a direct nod to the Charbagh's axial structure. But where a traditional Mughal garden is open to the sky, Aux-Siah Bagh operates in reverse: the sky is filtered through apertures, and the garden exists underground. The sections show how light penetrates at controlled intervals, animating reflections that blur the boundary between built form and water surface.

The Latticed Dome and Corner Pavilions: Architecture as Threshold

The isometric view reveals a latticed dome set within a square garden bounded by corner pavilions. The lattice works as a filter, fragmenting sunlight into patterns that shift throughout the day. This is the Kaleidoscope of Dreams, the space where mirrored surfaces multiply the Taj Mahal's reflection infinitely, representing eternal love and timelessness. The corner pavilions anchor the composition and likely house what the designers describe as community-oriented functions: gathering spaces, ecological infrastructure, and potentially water purification systems. The square perimeter grounds the project in Mughal formal tradition while the latticed dome at its center dissolves solidity into pattern and light.

Water, Terraces, and the Garden of Abundance

The final rendered view pulls back to reveal the broader landscape context. A central fountain pool sits in the foreground, its still surface reflecting the sky, while a terraced hillside settlement rises behind it under heavy clouds. This is the project's ecological ambition made visible. Beyond the symbolic core, Aux-Siah Bagh extends into agroforestry, water purification systems, and local gathering spaces that push the project beyond memorial into active landscape infrastructure. The terraced greens recall the Garden of Abundance, where water, light, and vegetation converge to symbolize rebirth. The designers are explicit that paradise here is not a heavenly afterlife but an earthly continuum, a place where memory and ecological function coexist.

Why This Project Matters

The most common instinct when confronting the myth of the Black Taj is to build something that matches the original in scale and material ambition. Aux-Siah Bagh resists that instinct entirely. By going underground, by prioritizing void over mass and reflection over surface, the project argues that the most meaningful response to a monument of love and loss is not another object but an experience of descent, stillness, and contemplation. The architecture becomes a spatial argument about how we process grief and legacy.

What makes this entry particularly compelling is its refusal to treat the Mughal Charbagh as a fixed historical artifact. The designers take its principles, symmetry, water, geometry, and cardinal orientation, and rotate them into a vertical dimension that feels genuinely new. The integration of ecological infrastructure alongside memorial space suggests that the best way to honor the past is not to fossilize it but to make it productive. Aux-Siah Bagh reimagines paradise not as a destination after death but as a garden that sustains the living.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designers: Udit, Norman We, Franklin, Ekta Rakholiya

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Project credits: The Black Taj- Aux-Siah Bagh by Udit, Norman We, Franklin, Ekta Rakholiya The Black Taj (uni.xyz).