Developed as a heritage village, DakshinaChitra has an array of displays and relocated originals of dwellings depicting the life pattern of people in the states of southern India.

The amenities include a research unit, crafts bazaar, playground, an area to hold religious functions, stone workshop, and souvenir kiosks.

Contributors to the museum's creation included long-term corporate donors [Ford Foundation] and the Office of the Development Commissioner for Handicrafts .

DakshinaChitra's exhibitions are predominantly architectural as at Skansen, Greenfield Village (USA) and the Weald and Downland Museum (England).

With its relocated originals and re-created copes, DakshinaChitra aims to represent the late-eighteenth to mid-twentieth century, framing that vaguely bounded period of intensive British colonization.

[14] The museum's master plan was developed by architect Laurie Baker, free of cost, because of his interest in rural architectural design.

Laurie Baker, known for his unconventional approach, included the use of local materials and the adaptation of artisanal production methods suited to the environment in design.

Benny Kuriakose, the architect who carried out the work later, recalls in one of his articles that Baker said; “the idea is to abandon the big exhibition pavilion system entirely.

[15] The complex brings together old buildings that have been transplanted from other sites, to give an idea of vernacular architecture and forms of community living from southern states namely Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

Tamil Nadu section showcases how yesteryear merchants, Brahmins, silk weavers, agriculturists and potters lived.

The textile collection consists of cotton and silk attires of male (dhoti, lungi, kurta, turban, cap, ceremonial attire), female (saree, blouse, half saree, full skirt, set mundu, veil, scarf), furnishings, yardage (Real Madras Handkerchief, Ikat, Kalamkari etc.

[18] The entire display is in the English language, and highlights the cultural aspects of people and the craft traditions of heritage homes of South India.

She has written that the global template of DakshinaChitra has earned both praise and criticism, with some conservation architects and cultural tourism proponents describing it as a Disneyfied version of south India's past; some critics complaining that the characterization of pre-industrial village life is inaccurate, focusing too much on the Nattukkottai Chettiar, and that the site is "stamped" with "American consumerism".

It is a space offering rural southern India as representation of the country, that invites both detached contemplation and nostalgic attachment.

[23] It is also said that DakshinaChitra embodies the contradiction of mourning the loss of pre- industrial life ways, yet is premised on free-market economic practice.

[14] But the curator, Thiagarajan traces her commitment to the project to deeply felt concerns about the loss of vernacular architectural, performance and craft traditions with southern India's rapid industrialization.