Should climatically-sensitive architecture become a norm?

Compiled by Rutvi Ashar

Photography: Courtesy Design Forum International

Read Time: 3 mins

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Design Forum International maps the sand dune typology to the Gulf Adiba Business Complex in Gurgaon that promises to shine like a jewel in the otherwise nondescript industrial township...

Applying the sand dune form in their floor plate, DFI create an iconic built form with stepped terraces (like ripples of the sand dune), optimum greenery and natural light (flooding the interiors), resulting in an optimally planned, stress free, open-office style working environment.

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The 4000 sq. m. plot, which envisages completion by 2017 into a 16000 sq. m. IT/ITES complex, is a six-storey high, fluid, rhythmic, continuous mass, with an east-facing open-to-sky entrance court and a distinctive, veil-like roof structure.

Site Plan

Infographic

An orientation-sensitive design that is Vaastu-compliant, the edifice is also climatically responsive, where the built form is opened up to capture maximum workable light from the north; with micro winds diverted into the structure via the open north-south spaces and the incorporation of water bodies, green pockets, internal courtyards and stepped levels. Smart offsets are generated are every level by free flowing forms that are used as recreational spaces, free of Floor Area Ratio (FAR).

Reception

Coffee Shop

The absence of any formal site influences makes the design introverted with the architects ingenuously incorporating a harmony between new age materials and technology and simple age-old concepts, creating a comfortable and aesthetically resplendent interior environment.

Aerial View

The phrase “infinite possibilities” aptly summarizes this brain child of Ar. Anand Sharma and his team at DFI for a flexible design solution that is open to future adaptation yet perfect for present requirements. The high point of the project is its innovatively designed roof-top space-frame with glass and polycarbonate panels, to which the building tapers to and enables an aerial view that vaguely, resembles an ‘8’.