ValueLabs Software Campus, Hyderabad, 2006 The challenge here was to create a friendly work environment within a relatively small site (0.8 hectares/2 acres) for a large workforce of 1,500. A sense of the larger community and the corporate image of the company were also important. Additionally, the project needed to adhere to the requirements of vaastu (the traditional principles of geomantic planning), which stipulated a square building with no offsets or projections. Two major axes within the building split the plan into four quadrants. One axis houses services and elevators, while the cross axis, as a stepped street, unifies all the upper levels. This multivolume stair in the manner of a Gujarati stepped well forms a pedestrian walk vertically through the building and creates a community street giving a larger sense of ‘campus’.
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