Revisiting Hi-rise Typology

By Savitha Hira

Photography: Akshat Jain & Amit Khanna; courtesy the architect

Multi-disciplinary design studio, Amit Khanna Design Associates from Delhi work towards breaking away from the typology of apartment blocks in urban Delhi...

Often design begins as a core problem-solver and builds, taking the project beyond its tangible expectations. Very recently we featured sky condos that defy typical planning to evolve an architecture that is non-standard and a programme distribution that is unique. With Cuboid House, an apartment block in Delhi, which is meant to be rented out at the onset before the owners decide to live there themselves, the architect rises up to the challenge of building a strong architectural vocabulary that is independent of the variety of interior treatments that will inevitably make subjective statements out of each floor.

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As we speak to Ar. Amit Khanna, he laments the fact that developer-driven apartment blocks have largely overtaken the architectural vocabulary in urban Delhi, where typically the complete permissible envelope is occupied and the buildings sport differently treated facades in keeping with perceived architectural trends. Our observation underlines this as a phenomenon in urban India. Incidentally, this liberty at being non-contextual and insensitive to a more cohesive human-environment interaction, is fashionably termed ‘individuality’ that tends to permeate through to every realm that touches us; and by hind sight, seems more disturbing than constructive.

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Serious issues these; have led several architects to put on their thinking caps, skew them and emerge with optimum solutions. Cuboid House is one such solution, where the building strategically optimizes all of the area permissible by local code, but redistributes it amongst the various floor levels via a series of open decks that open up to views on the north-east, facilitating an interior-exterior interaction. Additionally, this also creates a kind-of dramatic stepped back elevation as the building rises.

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With a built-up area of 15000 sq. ft., the project attempts to demonstrate how volumes and material usage can augment the life and feel of a structure. Two local stones, one grey (Cudappah), the other sandy brown (Jaisalmer teak), are used to emphasize the cubic volumes that give this house its name and form its most distinctive visible element. Added to this is the strategic monitoring of natural light into what is essentially, a narrow thin building via a 50 ft. tall aluminium facade element that adds to the luminosity of the interior spaces, without totally barricading the housemates from the outside world. 

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Two light wells are placed in the main living space; equipped with operable windows that not only bring light, but also draw out air from the floors and vent from the terrace. Aesthetically too, they engage, lending a suppleness to the project. The deep recesses for the windows and large overhangs temper the fierce climate of Delhi and recall sustainable building traditions, while allowing for views from within. Here is a project that reinstates that change is a matter of positive informed choice and need not be construed as a defiance or renaissance of general mass appeal. 

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