Di 42 | Suprio B - Technology, Impenetrability and Monumentality | DOMUSIndia 08/2015

August 2015

Volume 04 / Issue 09 R200

domus 42 August 2015

Author

Authors Tapan Mittal-Deshpande Conservation architect Contributors Suprio Bhattacharjee

INDIA

042

Photographers Amardeep Singh Nagi Attilio Stocchi Charles Correa George Meng GVK Photo archives Jose Campos Leo Torri Mahendra Sinh Niket Deshpande Peter Vanderwarker Pino Dell’Aquila Pranlal Patel Rohinton Irani Rosa Reis Saga Architecture Sarah Kaushik Shai Gil Smita Dalvi Tom Vack

LA CITTÀ DELL’ UOMO

CONTENTS 31

INDIA

Title

Kaiwan Mehta

32

Editorial What are the questions?

Attilio Stocchi

34

Confetti Favilla, every light has a voice

Michele De Lucchi

38

The walk

Kaiwan Mehta

42

Contemporary museum for architecture in India

What does it mean to be an architect?

Talking design

T2 Liminus…Jaya He…A view from the inside

Tapan Mittal-Deshpande

50

Kaiwan Mehta

64

Configuring the discursive space

78

Saga Architecture

Projects Technology, impenetrability and monumentality

90

Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners

The bridges of Expo 2015, Milan

Contemporary museum for architecture in India

Suprio Bhattacharjee

Amerigo Restucci

August 2015

Design

100

Rassegna Lighting

108

Feedback Amerigo Restucci’s Matera

Volume 05 / Issue 08 R200

042

LA CITTÀ DELL’ UOMO

LA CITTÀ DELL’ UOMO

042 August 2015

CHARLES CORREA (1930-2015)

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTRE FOR THE UNKNOWN, LISBON

Cover: The built forms of the Chamapalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon designed by Charles Correa seem to have been made in a moment of sheer creative epiphany. But it’s not just a mad, trance-like moment; instead there is reason and control even as the architect’s hand makes those bold strokes. Here, one can see how the heavy, monumental character of the built volume is offset by the lightness of the open internal space, brought into prominence owing to the large openings in the facade wall that ensure the visual flow of space. The project was one of his last built projects; three of which were covered in the December 2014 issue of Domus India. This cover is a dedication to Charles Correa, who passed away on June 16, 2015.

CHARLES CORREA (1930-2015)

CHAMPALIMAUD CENTRE FOR THE UNKNOWN, LISBON

Layered Narratives, a series of artworks at Jaya He, GVK New Museum, at the Mumbai International Airport flanks the moving walkways that lead disembarking travellers towards the baggage-claim area. It was intended as an introduction to Mumbai, revealing changing landscapes, dreams, memories, and dynamics through kinetic concepts.

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32 EDITORIAL

WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS?

There are many locations and contexts that we emerge from; after having classified ourselves as something called ‘Indian’, we go on to define ourselves from locations and contexts such as the fantastical ‘old civilisation’, dominant colonialism, inevitable post-colonial situations, love and hate with Globalisation – and a couple of more in-between; we love to jostle between debates and arguments of where our identity should be pinned, where it got lost, and when we should recover it. It somewhere becomes the raison d’être of theoretical and history-writing attempts. Talking within these readymade templates, do we forget what we actually need to talk about? Often in arguing against these templates we still justify their existence and the need to argue for one side of it. As much as these historical conditions are real and bear influence on our everyday lives and practices, to think within them as received brackets of structured knowledges becomes a problem.

These questions come to mind as one begins the new academic year, once again rethinking how one will shape courses and lectures one more time, but also as one reads the many essays and obituaries to Charles Correa who passed away on June 16. Within the pages of this magazine, we have in the past attempted to relook at the work of some of the masters such as Charles Correa, Raj Rewal, as well as some of the comparatively younger but also very established practices – trying to decipher and explore frameworks for understanding the ‘contemporary’ in architecture in India.

The contemporary conceptually extends to a broader context of pasts selected specifically, including ideas it forgets or wishes to ignore and not acknowledge. The contemporary also includes questions of historiography. And this is what brings us to these questions right now – it is the emotional and intellectual vacuum we, as a professional community, faced in the wake of Charles Correa’s death. Clearly, we, practicing in the contemporary moment, have not resolved our questions of history, our engagement with those we called ‘masters’ and their influence and role. The emotional and intellectual space combined within a professional exchange is something that is good that happened in this moment – I can only comment on this for the moment, and not explain any further.

It is not important whether Correa should be classified as Postmodern or not, neither do we need to discuss the measure of IndianModern he proposed. These would be true in a discussion on Raj Rewal or B V Doshi too, and a list of other dozen practices which are important for how we understand Modern and

Kaiwan Mehta

Contemporary in architecture in India. Can we rather go to core universals – asking what can architecture do, irrespective of its context, even if the answer lies in specific temporal and spatial loci. In biographies can we not look for defined journeys and results but for trajectories of intentions, the human condition of struggle with beliefs, rather than only the moment of refined confidence? Biographies are complex and the work that human beings do during their lives are even more complex simply for the sheer expanse of what it is possible in one human life – ideas, works, imaginations, tempers, beliefs, habits, and changing sensibilities. These characteristics, along with intentions and actions, shape a practice, produce works of intellectual material and physical realities. And what relationships have we set up with these lives and their practices? The latter question sits up strongest as we were faced with a sense of eternal loss with Correa’s death – and in the face of that condition one wonders on many counts.

On what counts have we defined our role in the professional and social world – where did we locate our definitions? Rather than waste time in the imaginary struggles between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’, it would be better to craft more nuanced approaches and questions on how we, as practitioners, are shaped, and understand the many loci within which our practices and thoughts can be located. Existing frameworks of intellectual reference will not disappear, because in a primary way they exist with a cause – historical; but they can be further detailed with critical questions and reviewing rather than blindly reinforce. Lives such as Correa’s leave us with this opportunity – the possibility to step out of standard historical narratives, and review newer possible locations and equations. But it also is the critical juncture to ask what is the shape of this profession in a context like India today – within the broader sub-continentinental structure as well as a continental perspective, without giving too much weightage to the concept of the ‘regional’.

As the first-episode of the two-part (over two issues) memorial feature on Correa shapes up we in fact look at a set of possible vantage positions to view his work, and only beginning to reflect on what that body of work could mean to generations of architects and our sense of contemporary culture as far as architecture is concerned.

We also feature another senior practice, in fact a second-generation practice, experimenting with the discursive space for architecture

– through its own example of opening up for reviewing the processes and thoughts within their studio through a lectureexhibition format. Clearly we are at a point where existing formats of discussions on architecture, the projections we have already on architecture are failing, and failing us, and newer platforms and equations are necessary; especially at a time when it is unclear what ideas of ethics and aesthetics will govern this profession in the days to come.

Simultaneously we bring here a detailed documentation of a recent project of great magnitude, and one that could be very influential – the imagination of the new international airport at Mumbai as a ‘new museum’ – Jaye He. Worked upon by a large team but broadly imagined by one scenographer Rajeev Sethi – this project brings to debate many questions regarding artistic and craft practices, and the formats in which art is produced, organised, and exhibited. What does it mean for an essentially mobile programme, such as the airport, to house a function that would require time and pause? Systems of viewing and reception are called into debate here. Sethi, who has been an important player in the history of ‘arts and crafts’ debate in this country, brings to this project many hands, many ideas, and many visual schemes and histories. This project itself sits in the midst of questions that ask – ‘what shape is our contemporary’?

As many interesting details shape old and new artistic practices and traditional crafts into a narrative and spatial structure within a building programme like the airport, what does it mean for a wide range of varying visual formats and practices of picture-making and meaning-making to come and sit next to each other?

And in this issue itself we also look at the struggles of contemporary architecture to shape tectonic-atmospheres within which professional clusters are generated, and they work in, as we review the architecture for TCS campus at Hinjewadi, Pune.

That is the broad spectrum of practices and journeys we are dealing with. What are going to be the questions we will ask? It is necessary to structure our approach to the intellectual history of this practice and profession of building-making and understanding in textured ways the biographies involved.km

PROJECTS

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Saga Architecture TECHNOLOGY, IMPENETRABILITY AND MONUMENTALITY At the foot of the Sahyadris, Tata Consultancy Services sets up a new software development centre within an SEZ (Special Economic Zone). A linear site gives form to a seemingly impenetrable monument to the company’s prowess, half a kilometre in length.

What shape does this give to the burgeoning image of us as a Knowledge Society?

Text Suprio Bhattacharjee Photos Saga Architecture

Tata Consultancy Services is known for the distinctive architecture of a few of its software development complexes – the ones designed

by Swiss Master Mario Botta and New Yorkbased Williams & Tsien (featured earlier in the February 2012 issue of Domus India) have in many ways renewed the idea of industry as a patron to distinctive architectures (within the country), and the appointment of local practices for their other campuses (including the one in Hyderabad featured in the November 2014 issue od Domus India) have also attempted to push the boundaries of what a working environment in today’s times can be.

With this in perspective, one can see the project here – the new Sahyadri Park as it has been christened – as another attempt by the company to provide its employees with distinctive working environments. So how does this one measure up?

Compared to the site seen earlier at Hyderabad, this one here in Hinjewadi, on the outskirts of

Pune, is a linear site, hundred metres short of a kilometre, and a fifth of a kilometre wide. The linear proportion gives rise to a straightforward arrangement of buildings around an elongated landscaped quadrangle over two stories of basement parking, bordered on the north by a monumental nine-storey wall of Software Development Blocks that maintains a visual datum as theground slopes upward to the west, and on the south by ground-hugging two-tothree-storied buildings containing recreation activities as well as the much needed cafeterias and eating spaces for a peak workforce capacity of almost 8000 tech workers. On the east, a low building housing the administration closes the quadrangle by an arc, while on the west, sports facilities topped by a 100-room hotel close off the quadrangle from the large sports field and Utility buildings on the western extreme of the site.

The lower cafetaria buildings as well as the administration buildings are seen as delicate

foils to the massive and preponderous presence of Software block. Glass and Tensile fabric canopies shade generous verandahs from the elements, while across the quadrangle, large punctures in the software block marked by brightly coloured canopies announce points of ingress into the seemingly impenetrable wall of open-plan office spaces. Each of these punctures lead to a naturally ventilated and naturally-lit voids providing access to circulation, with these atrium spaces enlivened by bridges and staircases enclosed by sculpted exposed concrete walls.

Off these spaces one leads to the office blocks that are fairly straight-forward and generic – arranged as a train of services and support zones to one side of deep-plan office spaces illuminated by bands of windows along their length – the north block with windows along the northern face, the linear south blocks with windows along its southern face.

The landscape design uses a variety of native

plants, while the building has been designed to the highest standards of energy efficiency, bettering the industry averages.

The entrance to the complex is defined by a flamboyant angled canopy swerving off an exposed concrete wall with the company name inscribed and embossed thereupon – striking as an emblem to the passerby – although one wonders over the condescending choice of colour.

Elsewhere, the detailing of the glass canopies is proficient and gives us the best that the international corporate vernacular has to offer.

As a set of buildings, this proficiently designed campus accommodates with ease the cient’s sizeable programme – leaving us to wonder what it scores with respect to its architecture. As a point of reference, TCS’s Hyderabad campus is an absolute winner – appearing edgy and thoughtful in comparison – with that building’s emphasis on activating the way in which the building mediates the ground, as well as the focus on settling in buildings and workspaces

Opposite page: the entrance to the complex is defined by a flamboyant angled canopy swerving off an exposed concrete wall with the company name inscribed and embossed thereupon. This page: detailing of the glass canopies throughtout the complex indicate what ‘international corporate vernacular’ has to offer

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PROJECTS 81

This spread: glass and tensile fabric canopies shade generous verandahs from the elements, while across the quadrangle, large punctures in the software block marked by brightly coloured canopies announce points of ingress into the office spaces

Project TCS Sahyadri Park Location Hinjewadi, Pune Client Tata Consultancy Services Principal Architect SAGA Architecture - Frank Glynn AIA, Jim Stafford, Tony Cheung, Lavinia Essaian Design Collaboration Perkins + Will, Los Angeles Executive Architect Edifice consultants Pvt Ltd Structural Engineers Vastech Consultants Pvt Ltd Services Engineers Eskayem Consultants Pvt Ltd Landscape Architect Shobha Bhopatkar and Associates Project Management Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd Contractor Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Ltd Interior contractor Narsi and Associates Site Area 48 acres Project Area 2,500,000 Square Feet Initiation of Project March 2007 Completion of Project March 2014

Recreation East Elevation RECREATION EAST ELEVATION

0

Recreation North Elevation RECREATION NORTH ELEVATION

10M

5

5

12

6 12 11

8

8 12 12 11 10 4

STAIRCASE

EXIT

11 REPRO

7

9

DISC.

DISC.

12 10 6 12 10 12 6 6 12 12 12 12 6 10 5 DISC.

11 12 12 12 12 DISC.

STAIRCASE

EXIT

CABIN

REPRO

PANTRY

CABIN

DISC RM

ELEC

DISC RM

CORE 1

AHU

PANTRY

CABIN

CONFERENCE

CABIN

LIFT LOBBY

DISC RM

7 12 6 5 6 12 ST-06

CABIN

LIFT LOBBY

DHR

LADIES TOILET

JAN

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GENTS TOILET

CABIN

SMOKING RM

AHU

CABIN

CABIN

DISC RM

6 10 6 12 12 12 6 DISC RM

REPRO

PANTRY

FRIEGHT LIFT LOBBY

RM - FEMALE SLEEPING

REPRO RM

REPRO

12

12 12 12 12

12

12 10 6 5

5

7 16

15 15 12 12 15

ARCHIVE

5 6 12 DISC RM

CONFERENCE

CABIN

12

ARCHIVE

REPRO

CABIN

CABIN

5 13 6 12 6

LIBRARY AREA

CYBER AREA

3

DISC.

JAN.ROOM

REPRO

7

FLOOR PLAN OF SOFTWARE BLOCK

7

8

MEETING

CORRIDOR

6 12 12

REPRO

CONFERENCE

5 12 6

TRAINING ROOM

PM

CABIN

12

TRAINING ROOM

STAIRCASE

8

9

EXECUTIVE DINING ROOM

PM

LIFT LOBBY

7

12

EXIT

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REPRO

5 12 9 6 12 MEETING

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1310 7 14 8

STORE ROOM

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CABIN

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PRESENCE ROOM

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DW

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CHR 1

CABIN

8 12 12 12 8 12 9 6 12 10 13 91211 10 6 6 5 13 5 REPRO RM

SLEEPING RM - MALE

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TOILET (WOMEN)

7 IT ENTRY / EXIT

CABIN

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DIS.TOI.

MEETING-8

9 10 11 8

AHU ROOM

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4

STAIRCASE

6

PANTRY

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PANTRY

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REPRO

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TERRACE AT 1ST FLOOR

12 12 6 TOILET (MEN)

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PASSAGE

5 5

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SERVICE

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5 13 6 12

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Administration East Elevation

EXIT

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STORE ROOM

DATA

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PANTRY

AHU

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ADMINISTRATION SOUTH ELEVATION

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Administration West Elevation

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ACCESS CONTROL PANEL. ROOM

10M

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CORRIDOR

DISC RM

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ADMINISTRATION WEST ELEVATION Administration West Elevation SITE SECTION

Administration South Elevation

Site Section

ADMINISTRATION NORTH ELEVATION

1 IT and BPO Office Areas 2 Library 3 Cyber Cafe 4 Breakout 5 Meeting Spaces Administration East Elevation 6 Cabin 7 Lift Lobby 8 Toilet 9 Store 10 Sleep Rooms 11 Pantry 12 Service Spaces 13 Reprographics 14 Smoke Room 15 Training Room 16 Executive Dining Room 17 Terrace

OPEN TERRACE

BPO AREA

SoftwareBlock3 SOFTWARE BLOCK 3

Recreation South Elevation RECREATION SOUTH ELEVATION

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EAST ELEVATION

EAST ELEVATION

Administration North Elevation

SOUTH ELEVATION

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in an interesting configuration across the site – thus ensuring spaces that are at times surprising and intriguing. Here, unfortunately, the massiveness of the building is brought to the fore, by its rather inarticulate meeting with the ground. Also, the ability of the building to offer its occupants varied and exciting workspaces seems to have been eschewed in favour of the ‘factory-floor’. The immediate connection to the outdoors and greens (so necessary for tech workers huddled over their desks and in front of their monitors through the day) that is an important aspect of relieving fatigue during periods of focussed working is reserved here for a formal ‘garden’ – a classical move that distances the real accessibility to these spaces and the necessary intimacy and comfort that these spaces will need to provide to the occupants of the campus.

Has image taken over concerns of specificity in this particular project – is an important question to probe. This is undoubtedly a proficient project – technically sound, and wellexecuted. However the dominant vocabulary of the international corporate vernacular – both in its articulation of the built volumes, as well as in its treatment of the ancillary built spaces and the important aspect of the landscape design – robs the project of a defining quality to move and endear. One remembers celebrated master I M Pei’s MIT Media Lab building – now almost 30 years old – and its cold and distancing architecture that in many ways set an unfortunate tone for the architecture of the information age – edifices that bore the vestiges of most of the banal aspects of Modernism and its imitators. But this expression is now dated – a point even its recent, rather tame extension

by Japanese master Fumihiko Maki brought home squarely.

As the company continues to expand, and as this becomes a dominant typology within the mainstream of the architecture of workspaces within the country, one hopes that the generic will be eschewed in favour of the celebration of the specific. That shouldn’t be too much to ask for. Here, for instance, one wishes the low hills that lie within its proximity could have been brought home.

This spread: the linear site gives rise to a straightforward arrangement of buildings around an elongated landscaped quadrangle, with the Software Development Blocks that maintains a strong visual datum. Built spaces are broken down into smaller pieces to provide connectivity to the linear garden

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This spread: there is an immediate connection of the built spaces to the outdoors and greens, where the landscape design uses a variety of native plants

FROM THE ARCHITECTS’ PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The project brief was to create a state-ofthe-art Software Development Campus for approximately 23,000 Information Technology professionals. The Campus will provide services for multinational companies worldwide. The 47 acre parcel of land is located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). SEZs are created by the Indian Government to allow domestic companies to avail of certain tax benefits for export services.

Tata Consultancy Services required the project to be phased, as it represents an investment and would allow for a substantial addition of capacity to their existing workforce. A requirement of SEZs is that it should cater to new projects only, thus Tata Consultancy Services could not simply transfer existing projects to fill up the new facility.

The project was initiated in 2007; construction began in the summer of 2008 and was completed by the end of 2013. The project has an occupied floor area of approximately 2.5 million square feet with a further 1.5 million square feet of enclosed parking.

Project suitability The project is customdesigned and constructed to meet the Tata Consultancy Services’ brief. The site is rectangular in shape, approximately 200 metres wide by 880 metres in length. Using the natural topography, the site is divided into five levels, demarcating the primary functional areas of the project. The first level contains the Administrative Zone, Training, Client Care and the Auditorium; the second through fourth levels each contain software engineering blocks of approximately 8,000 workstations each; the fifth level, furthest from the main entrance, contains the power plant and electrical substation. The organisation of the site allowed Tata Consultancy Services to construct and occupy the project in a scalable manner.

Software building The elongated rectangular shape of the campus is bordered on two sides, the east and north, by roadways.

The nine storey, 450-metre-long, subtly modelled north facade of the software blocks intentionally represents the power, prominence and strength of the company amongst its industry peers and the Indian business community. The scattered breaks and slices through the shield of the facade provide clues to the complexity of the inner spaces. The three major entry points are punctuated by bright hued cantilevered canopies. In concert with traditional Pune architecture, a music gallery is located above the entrance arch such that visitors would be serenaded as they enter through the gateway.

Owing somewhat to the benign climate, but also to the desire to create a different model for office buildings, the entry and circulation spaces are all non-conditioned. The lines between the inside and the outside are blurred as the over-scaled openings welcome and encourage entry. Throughout the building, circulation spaces are cooled by natural ventilation.

In contrast to the protective shell of the north facade, the south side of the software buildings is more articulated and breaks down into smaller pieces to provide connectivity to the linear garden and other features and facilities of the campus. Entrances cut through to reveal the inner organisation and structure of the buildings; large sky terraces and a floating

skylight permit cooling breezes to temper the microclimate of the circulation zones. Car parking is provided in subterranean structures.

From there, escalators connect to the central garden where frit glass canopies protect the path of travel to the building entrance. The short walk to the entry is accented by with water features, native landscape and creative lighting effects.

Rising from the primary entrance, as an inducement to all to forgo the elevator and circulate vertically via stairways, the grand staircase is formed by a pair of cupped monolithic concrete walls punctured by random triangular openings. As the walls rise, the openings change in scale and frequency from many small piercings to one large shape at the top.

Cafeteria NorthELEVATION Elevation CAFETERIA NORTH

Glass walled bridges connect the stairs at every level while visually integrating all the design elements into a continuous whole and providing functionally efficient circulation.

The central atrium is the organisational space of the software blocks, and is ringed by circulation and serves as a constant reminder of the importance of everyone’s role and how it connects to the company as a whole. Flying overhead, translucent tensile fabrics in the national colors of India break the intensity of vertical sun rays experienced at certain times of year.

Of paramount concern during the design process was to give every workstation access to the maximum amount of daylight and unobstructed views to the exterior while also minimising glare at the desktop.

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The strategies used were: floating ceilings in combination with floor-to-floor glazing to maximise daylight; exterior perforated metal screens and horizontal louvres to eliminate direct glare; narrow floor plates and lower partition heights to maximise connection to the exterior.

In IT (Software Development) zones the workstations are arranged in clusters of four to promote collaboration. In BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) areas the workstations are organized on curving tables to break the predictability of the workspace. The fabrics and theme motif of the campus come from an indigenous, traditional weaving pattern, Ikat.

Two highly contrasting local granites combine to create the graphically stunning floor; the elongated geometry of the field pattern coupled

with randomly placed highlights generate the visual movement. The material palette of major circulation spaces is relatively simple, in anticipation of the inherent energy of the youthful demographic of the buildings occupants and the vibrancy and diversity of their apparel.

Innovative technology and methods Breaking the mold of typical office space in the IT industry, at Sahyadri Park Tata Consultancy Services is experimenting with a nontraditional arrangement. This creative office space relies on wireless technology that allows TCS associates to move around and work in a variety of configurations. The creative workspace module has large desks for groups of 12 or 8, comfortable chairs for groups of four

armed with their own laptops. The space is close in concept to a business-class lounge; so far the associates who have worked in the creative workspace are relishing the experience.

Several construction methodologies and materials uncommon in India have been implemented and used at the Sahyadri Park campus. These include terrazzo which has made a huge comeback internationally but was little used in India. The durability and design flexibility of terrazzo is unmatched by other factory-produced flooring materials.

Fly ash, which is a by-product of coal-burning power plants, was used extensively in concrete to reduce the requirement for cement, resulting in a reduction of 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the course of the project.

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This project has led to a re-awakening of the terrazzo industry in India. Another local trade that was employed at the site was that of stone masons – the 2-kilometre-long 3-metre-high boundary wall is dressed on both sides by local hand-cut basalt. In the interiors, the design team cooperated with local Ikat weavers to create a customised fabric that incorporated the colour schemes of the floors and the overall theme of the Sahyadri mountain range.

Several strategies were employed to reduce the overall power consumption of the project.

These include a study of annual solar radiation indices for the site to determine the optimal orientation of the buildings; the use of a perforated metal screen on the south face of the building to prevent direct sunlight from hitting the glass; large covered outdoor dining areas to

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reduce the requirement for conditioned space; non-conditioned circulation areas; ice storage for chilled water system – ice is made at night when power consumption is less and electricity rates are low, the ice is then used during work hours to chill the water circulating to HVAC equipment in the buildings. In addition to these and other strategies, the entire campus is served by a single scalable utility plant, resulting in significant savings in both the daily and overall life-cycle costs of the campus.

This spread: the building has been designed to the highest standards of energy efficiency, bettering the industry averages. The three major entry points are punctuated by bright hued cantilevered canopies; the saffron coloured flying form of the gateway canopy and the resolute shape of the TATA signature wall are clues to the architectural drama that unfolds within the campus