Sculptural chiaroscuro!

Compiled by Team IAnD

Photography: Dinesh Mehta; courtesy V2com

Read Time: 2 mins

GLA University Hostel (inset) Ar. Sanjay Puri

Sanjay Puri Architects create organic spaces – both, inside and outside - this 800-room students’ hostel, which takes its cue from the contextual language of its vicinity – the old city streets of Mathura in India….

Designed as five linear blocks, each four-levels high, the built spaces snake across a wedge-shaped site, twisting and turning along its length. Sitting adjacent to repetitive hostel blocks on the east and west, these new student accommodations within a large university campus create individual spaces within a discernible identity in each part of the layout.

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All buildings are carefully oriented towards the north overlooking a vast playground. Additionally, each hostel room is punctuated with a wedge-shaped bay window, also oriented towards the north, whilst it is internally anointed with a window that opens into the interior corridor, thus facilitating cross ventilation. Further, the linear buildings create small break-out spaces at each bending point, allowing natural light into the internal circulation spaces.

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Such aspects of the design create an energy-efficient building, minimizing heat gain in response to the climate, which has average temperature in excess of 300c for almost eight months of the year, when the sun is in the Southern Hemisphere. During winter, when the sun is in the Northern Hemisphere, direct sunlight is facilitated into the rooms, to prevent them from becoming cold.

 

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Two focal areas are created at the ends of the linear buildings to house cafeterias, games rooms and gymnasium, opening into the north-facing gardens and terraces. Each of the public spaces are large volumes with 20 ft. high ceilings.

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The organic layout of the buildings characterizes each space within the site. Colour accentuates different blocks and facilitates vibrant interiors within. Each block is differently coloured, in bright colours, along the internal face of the bay windows to create an identity. 

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Rainwater harvesting, water recycling and usage of solar panels additionally make the project more energy-efficient, in addition to the orientation of openings and natural ventilation making the buildings climatically sensitive.

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‘The Street’, as the project is officially christened, is contextual to the climate and the orientation of the site, thus creating varied experiences and changing perceptions of space in each part of the six-acre site.

Fact File:

Project: The Street, Hostel @ GLA University

Client: GLA University

Architects: Sanjay Puri Architects

Designers: Sanjay Puri, Ishveen Bhasin

Area: 2,11,000 sq. ft.

Location: Mathura, U.P., India