Twisting through the Sky
Sushant School of Art and Architecture; Design Studio’17;
Instructor: Thomas Oommen, Gaurav Sanan
What lies in the context raises a lot of questions, which may define what the design becomes at the end. The context can give us cues on how to progress with the design, and allow us to understand how the human condition has evolved in that particular region, and how it may change with the addition of another element. To effectively place the new addition and optimize the experience, it's essential to understand what is already present.
This project dealt with the challenge of merging a luxury hotel with a strong context in its vicinity, a street market and LIC Building, designed by Charles Correa. The design intends to be as dramatic as possible to engage more and more pedestrians that visit the marketplace on a daily basis. The design contrasts with the largely linear and boxy design of LIC Building. The twist and the organic slab allow to produce multiple points to exaggerate the effect of going against the predominant built form in the vicinity.
The massing of the first few floors is reduced by introducing vertical fins and pushing them back, thus making sure they interact further with the market on the ground floor.
Private and public spaces were merged by introducing semi-public spaces as buffer zones and carefully designing the program around that, to simplify the complexity of the pr0gram. The cantilevers of the upper floors create a visual screen for the private rooms.
Shafts were utilized as a structural feature, to leave the floor plan undisturbed by any structural elements which resulted in a more judicious usage of space.
The existing public circulation on the site was allowed to move into the site freely, to be able to use the plaza as they require and creating a more organized and expansive public plaza on the ground floor.
