Misc: Charitable Trust|Corporate Office
Physical Object by Mathew and Ghosh Architects (MGAPL) and Saumitro Ghosh, Principle ArchitectThis is a building that attempts to work around the idea of splicing the self contained urban box with light wedges - almost like courts, that functionally divide the block into 3 independent segments. These can be read as functional divisions that have developed as the work culture and hierarchy of the business house over 2 generations. The front becomes the most private and isolated set of cells for the managers, the middle becomes the zone of meeting together / outsiders at each level and the rear is the general staff area. Each bay has thus also been designed as a structurally self-contained one, allowing continuous expanses of glass in the light wedges.
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© MGAPL.
+ Bangalore, India… + Categorisation: Publications: Imprints and Media (primary)… |
Bangalore is considered the information technology capital of India and the boom in real estate has seen the ubiquitous mushrooming of the structural glass and aluminum clad facades, external to any organizational clarity. In the central business district where this project is located, space and light are at a premium as buildings sit in close proximity. This is the corporate office of a business house with diverse interests. Located in a dead end street situation in the central business district it occupies about 10,000 square feet of floor area.
Within this urban box there is a private realm that opens itself to the outside selectively and as the clouds go by, the inside of the building takes innumerable nuances of sunlight in all it shades of color, the grayness of the clouds and the hues of the rainbow.
- The three light strips that run complete from the ground floor level to the top completely slicing the block, inform the development of the building, and the staircase shifts to access different floors.
- Vertical movement is split into two discontinuous movements to engage the user by moving through transversely into the varying zones of light. Importantly to retain privacy of the uppermost floors, where the owners have their private workspaces - by distancing the stair farther away from them. The first staircase located about the second light wedge (leading from ground level to basement and first floor) and the second one located about and in the third light wedge.
- The stair made of suspended steel sections is sprayed with industrial hammer tone paint and the treads are linseed oil coated local hardwood. The lightness of the stair is essential to transparency between bays.
- The entire building has three floor levels other than the basement. However the central bay between light strips are glass boxes composed of meeting rooms on each of the three levels. But the one half of this bay breaks in section into one and half floors each (reception and waiting space on the ground floor level and the Board room above), to create innumerable conditions of visual contact.
- The connection between within the tripartite building block is formed by a linear passage that is seen as a bridge connecting the three structurally independent The passage floor is picked up as an exaggerated bar code pattern made by inlaying white marble in the otherwise gray-green expanse of the kotah stone floor. In the light shafts, the marble often glows as if it were bands of broken sunlight. At places this random pattern of the flooring is repeated as band of textured paint on the wall that reflect the same pattern of the floor. The central transparent meeting rooms allow for a visual continuity between bays. The bridge like connection adapts the language of the stair for its railings, in its lightness and transparency.
- The light strips are all of frosted glass, as are all the glasses in the building. The client, an avid art collector also required that many of the original art works be displayed here. Thus the option of frosted glass to soften the natural light was honed in on. This, and the close proximity of the buildings on neighboring lots made for the choice of frosted glass. At the corner where the light strip turns to the roof the top frosted glass slopes inwards. It collects all the water on the terrace, which is then taken down. The glass wedges at the top have been deliberately kept lower than the height of the 3 masonry blocks. The heat that can accumulate in these light strips is ventilated by the use of hidden away turbo ventilators; the hot air is pulled out as it rises into the light strips. The enclosed spaces of the cabins have air-conditioning but all the spaces are naturally ventilated.
- The gypsum board partitions are incised and openings made by strategic openings wherever required and often at the ceiling level to allow the roof to feel as a continuous surface and the whole building as one space within which separate spaces are made yet letting the overall maintain its presence.
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