THE CHROMATIC HOUSE

Built on a typically rectangular plot, this house establishes a conversation between whimsy and simplicity meeting all the requirements of the clients.

The Chromatic House

INTRODUCTION

Rectangular urban plots usually generate rectilinear plans, resulting in stratified & compartmentalised domestic lives. Even without pandemic-induced isolations, urban families often desire deeper, almost rural, linkages and balance between the home and a private garden. Anagram Architects had been asked to create a whimsical yet simple structure, enclosed within a typically rectangular plot of 6800 sq. ft. surrounded by neighbours along its three sides.

THE DESIGN

Keen on a light-hearted and vibrant city home, client--a youthful family of five--wanted an active lifestyle invested in spending time together. The home blocks extraneous views while expansively opening into a large lawn, carved diagonally out of the plot. From tinted concrete to shafts of light from pitched skylights, the design infuses whimsical playfulness into an admired material palette and stark volumes.

MEETING CLIENT’S REQUIREMENTS

Chromatic House’s child-like playfulness derives directly from the client’s mandate. A young nuclear family of five, desired a city home for the children to grow up playing together under actively participative care of their parents. So, the design arranges the home and a lawn in an oblique, but equal, figure-ground and departs from the urban box-form by referencing a more rural pitched roof form with a long verandah.

The Chromatic House

The bedrooms on the first floor spill onto a large tapered A-frame volume which accommodates a mezzanine lounge and the living, dining and kitchen in an open plan. This volume opens in to the lawn and vegetable garden, through a long verandah shaded by a pergola, while the study in the attic whimsically connects with it, through a slide tucked under the stairs.

The design is a conversation between whimsy and simplicity: between material vibrancy, play of light and reticent fenestrations, on one hand, and a stark, tapered, singular volume on the other. All the building materials used are sourced from within a 300-mile radius from the site. North Indian marbles vis-àvis the imported stones have been extensively preferred.

The design is a conversation between whimsy and simplicity: between material vibrancy, play of light and reticent fenestrations, on one hand, and a stark, tapered, singular volume on the other.

Tint, patterns and texture of bare concrete and terracotta is meant to infuse youthfulness into an admired and frugal material palette. The red tinted, concrete in expressed formwork used externally transitions to smooth grey concrete internally. Similarly, diagonally patterned yellow brick contrasts with thin-section birch joinery to add delicate warmth to the light filled interior.

In the backdrop of the climate change issue, the parents were equally conscious of the environmental footprints of the construction of Chromatic House. The tapering linear form and glare protected windows--aligned to the open lawn and punctured by a fabric shaded open atrium--helped orient the house to maximise daylighting and minimise extraneous views and solar thermal heat gain passively.

The substantial heating and cooling required in the north Indian semi-arid, semi-humid subtropical climate is actively addressed by an under-floor radiant heating and cooling HVAC system. This low energy system, the first installation of its kind for a residence in the region, helps manage temperature extremes while allowing the house to be naturally lit and ventilated. Photovoltaics installed on the sloping roof generate energy to be fed back to the grid.

Almost half of the site is a lawn meant to soak up runoff from extreme rain incidents that are now quite common in the region. As it transpired, the home’s emphasis on private greens, exclusion of the outside noise and views has made pandemic-induced boredom and isolations things of the past. BMR

SPECIFICATIONS

CHROMATIC HOUSE

Location: Gurugram, Haryana, India Architect: Anagram Architects Design Team: Vaibhav Dimri, Madhav Raman, Shruti Dimri, Jainy Gandhi, Piyush Parimal, Kalaiarasan C Project Area: 6800 sqft Photo Credit: André Jeanpierre Fanthome

I D O R I G I N S Mumbai’s

New New Landmark Landmark

For such a prestigious project, the challenge was to do justice to the city as well as location and also to get the building integrated into the urban fabric of the country’s financial capital.

INTRODUCTION

ID Origins--a project that marks the dawn of a new era in the Dudhwala legacy. Located in the heart of South Mumbai, this mixed use tower, comprising six office and twelve residential floors on top, has established its identity in the nation’s financial capital. The client wanted to retain the old--a low rise building, which wasn’t fit for any further vertical extension. So, to bear the load of the additional floors, peripheral columns have been erected from bottom to top and a transfer floor has also been casted.

The requirement of the client was to create an architectural expression with external designing that included façade, landscaping and interiors for this retrofitting building. This is because when the project was handed over to Studio Symbiosis, 40% work of the construction--including the basic structural designing--had already been completed.

The result is a façade grid that has two distinct horizontal striations with two different mismatched vertical grids. The design intent was to integrate the existing and proposed building grid into one coherent design language. Duality of design looks to minimising the heat gain on the office floors and maximising the views on the residential floors. This design language of calligraphic curves is further extended into the interiors as well as landscape of the site.

The beautiful art form of ‘Calligraphy’ has been adopted in this design project, to create vertical, undulating strokes seamlessly amalgamating the entire built form into one. These calligraphic lines create unobstructed city view from the residential floors on the top, while becoming a perforated screen for the office floors. The strokes are aligned to screen the external columns and integrate the multiple entrances on the ground floor.

This comprehensive design language looks at giving a unified experience to the residents as well as the visitors. The breath-taking design of the innovative facade has been created by the New Delhi-based award-winning architecture firm Studio Symbiosis, with the founders Ar. Amit & Britta Knobel Gupta having been close disciples of the late Zaha Hadid—the Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, renowned as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

THE SIGNIFICANCE

ID Origins is a mixed used revitalisation project which has been designed using undulating calligraphic strokes which seamlessly integrate the old and the new. The significance of the project arises both from its location in the city of Mumbai and also the sentimental value the building holds for the owners. The idea was to create a structure that must respond to the site, to design brief, and to the people occupying it.

The original structure was built in the 1980’s and is the pivotal focus of where the owners started their business, hence the name ID origins. Twelve additional residential floors have been erected above the existing six commercial floors, with a transfer girder between these two stratas as well as additional columns that have been designed starting from the ground up.

Given the dichotomy of the requirements of these distinct activities in the building, the design looks at creating perforated screens on the commercial floors to reduce solar glare and provide optimum lux level. These calligraphic strokes gradually wane as they reach the residential floors, thereby maximising the panoramic views for the residential apartments.

FAÇADE – THE LOCUS OF THE SITE

The façade of the project creates a locus for the site, and acts as a visual marker for the entrance to the overall site, which spreads over 12 acres of land. In the dense urban fabric of Mumbai, the project is visible from pedestrian as well as vehicular routes, making the site experience more coherent.

This urban rehabilitation of the site extends into the urban fabric by the means of, rerouting the entrances and exits to decongest the entrance road, uplifting the pedestrian walkways in the vicinity of the site, dissolving the site boundary and creating an urban lobby which becomes a part of the Mumbai streetscape.

Considering the undulating nature of the façade, it was important to rationalise it into panels that are easy to construct for construction. The geometry of the calligraphic moves is planar in nature, with a V profile in plan. This was done to ensure that we have multiple options of materials and techniques to execute the design. SPECIFICATIONS

ID ORIGINS, MUMBAI

Site Area | Built-Up Area: 1.5 Acre | 18,750 Sq. m Client: I. DUDHWALA GROUP Program: Office, Residential, Lobby Scope: Facade | Landscape Design: Ar. Amit & Britta Knobel Gupta Concept Design: Kartik Misra, Chinmay Chowdhary, Anjan Mondal, Mandeep Chaudhary, Aditya Sharma

BUILDING MATERIALS USED

Given the loading requirements on the old existing structure, this execution flexibility, inbuilt in the design, was helpful. Mock-ups were done on site for GRC, FRP, ACP, and finally CNC-routed ACP panels were selected due to their light weight and fire rated properties. The time of execution was reduced by six months as no moulds were required. Thus, overall, the cost of construction was also cut down.

Completed in shorter than the given time frame, the mixed use property has been executed in its entirety and handed over to the 3rd generation of the Dudhwala dynasty. This brainchild of the new-gen has already bagged several credible accolades, including the ‘Best Design’ award at the renowned World Architecture 36th Cycle Awards event. BMR