India at World Architecture Festival

Information & Images: Courtesy WAF

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India’s Ar. Sanjay Puri bags three coveted awards at the prestigious World Architecture Festival and the World Festival of Interiors - the largest annual festival and live awards programmes for the global architecture and design community.

Getting felicitated seems routine for Ar. Sanjay Puri. The dynamic architect with his iconic architectural repertoire and his constant reinvention of space and its function is not just getting appreciated by the who’s-who of the global architectural fraternity, but is opening up new ways of looking at building design in India. After all his awards are pouring in for projects being executed in India!

Agashiyan at Ahmedabad

Agashiyan designed by Sanjay Puri Architects has won the ‘Future Projects - Office’ award at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) 2014. Situated amidst low rise developments in Ahmedabad, the office building is set to become the tallest building in the entire precinct. The rapidly urbanizing city calls for a tall structure to accommodate the increasing population density. Retail spaces are situated at the ground level, with office spaces at every level fragmented with smaller spaces having 3-4 level elevated organic streets linking them together.

The building was selected by a jury of some of the world’s most dynamic architects and designers; and overcame competition from a shortlist of nine entries. The jury commended the project, saying “the design has a strong personality with creative use of semi-corridors and public spaces. It offers a fresh alternative approach to prevailing office building standards worldwide.”

The Village at Alibaug

Winning the ‘Future Projects – Residential’ award for The Village, at Alibaug, Sanjay Puri says that his inspiration for a unique architectural vocabulary each time, comes from the fact that his office is driven by design; by the desire to create spaces that evoke new perceptions. “Architecture,” he elaborates, “Must be exciting to experience, while being contextual, and sustainable and sculptural.”

The Village is an organic design solution that has emerged from its context and creates homes that become a part of the site. Depending upon the contours of the land, the built spaces step along them diagonally creating open terrace gardens outside each room, which are sheltered by pergolas in response to the arid hot climate of the site's location (average temperature of 30 to

35°C) throughout the year.  The building overcame competition from a shortlist of 16 entries.

Auriga at Mumbai

Notwithstanding the victory at future projects category, Sanjay Puri Architects have also won the Highly Commended Award in the Bar & Restaurants category at INSIDE: World Festival of Interiors for Auriga at Mumbai. 

Transformed from a disused warehouse, Auriga is a nightclub and restaurant that creates the feeling of being within a sculpture rather than looking at one. The nightclub on the ground floor is made up of a series of angular aluminium fins that fold to create the roof, the walls, bar and staircase. On the second floor, the restaurant is a more fluid design in contrast with the angular shapes downstairs, where thin wooden strips flow freely from the ceiling and walls to the bar and kitchen counters. Auriga has been designed and delivered on a small budget and in a sustainable manner, the lower floor is made from the waste metal left over from the manufacturing of air conditioning units and the upper level uses leftover wood from other projects. 

Ar. Sanjay Puri

Talking about his repeated accolades at international competitive platforms, Sanjay says, “Competing on international platforms keeps one informed of varied responses from across the world in the design fields and is thus informative at many levels.” So shall we say Ar. Sanjay Puri that your inspiration and drive for out-of-box is being nurtured in the global sphere?! Well, way to go!!