The evolving culture of architecture in modern India, both as a lifestyle and as a profession, has been eye-opening. We never predicted the extent to which architecture and design could affect us as well as the society and culture we live in, nor did we foresee how deeply symbolic of our beliefs and attitudes they would become. The enormous wave of development and innovative technology has resulted in the shaping up of distinct architecture styles in India led by various architects in India.
Here are 10 of India’s most unique buildings culture using innovative technology and their architects:
1. Bamboo Symphony by Manasaram Architects | innovative technology
Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka
Bamboo Symphony, the workspace of Manasaram Architects, embodies all their design philosophies along with the required spaces and services. The office built adjacent to the principal architect’s newly constructed residence uses all the waste wood, stone boulders, and debris generated in the construction process of the house. Mud and bamboo, used innovatively along with the waste materials, serve as the primary construction materials. The office is a zero-energy design, with closed-loop methods for building materials, processes, and technologies. Apart from this, the building designed with the five elements of nature: Air, Earth, Water, Fire, and Space, the Panchamahabhutas, caters to the needs of all the three faculties of Man: Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual.
2. The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre by Anagram Architects
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
SAHRDC’s office, located in a tightly plotted site of 50 sq. m. in South Delhi, has been designed by Anagram Architects with an emphasis on spatial efficiency and cost-effective construction, to meet with the brief of generating a maximum usable area within a limited budget. Constructed over a period of 5 weeks that involved processes of innovating masonry techniques on-site, the most attractive aspect of the structure is the 6-brick module laid in staggered courses that create the twirling vertical stacks and an undulating surface. The porous and playful external facade, designed to provide a degree of acoustic and visual privacy from the street activity, intimately engages the street corner. Simultaneously, it ensures that the bugger bay is well ventilated and yet shaded to reduce the amount of heat transmitted to the workspace.
3. The Street by Sanjay Puri Architects | innovative technology
Location: Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
The Street by Sanjay Puri Architects is contextual to the climate and the site, creating varied experiences and changing perceptions of space in each part of the 6-acre site. The provisions of rainwater harvesting, water recycling, and usage of solar panels, along with the orientation and facilitation of natural ventilation, make the project energy-efficient. The placement of all the buildings generates a view of large north facing garden areas overlooking a vast playground. Even the hostel rooms have wedge-shaped bay windows oriented towards the North. These factors help in minimizing heat gain in response to the climate when the sun is in the Southern Hemisphere. Whereas during the winter months, when the sun is in the Northern Hemisphere, direct sunlight prevents the rooms from becoming cold.
4. Software Development Block, Infosys by Ar. Hafeez Contractor
Location: Mysuru, Karnataka
The Software Development Block at Infosys Mysuru, thoughtfully designed by Architect Hafeez Contractor, is known for its jagged facades and lopsided fragments style. The unique design concept for this building came to the architect’s mind when he visited the tremendously contoured site for the first time. Initially, the building had an almost rectilinear form with a few irregular edges in the vertical plane, which later progressed into its present form that has the signs of distorted contours in all the three dimensions. The facade is, in essence, moving in and out in various angles and inclines, giving rise to the distorted form. Thus, one can say that the design concept and smart selection of innovative building materials have transformed the project into an awe-inspiring place for the software developers to work.
5. In the Mountains by Ant Studio | innovative technology
Location: Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand
In the Mountains, a residence in Mukteshwar, by Ant Studio, is a fine example of the studio’s approach towards the blend of nature and technology, along with sustainable, artistic forms in all their projects. With the intent of complementing the rugged beauty of the Himalayas, this residence derives its structure from contours and slopes of the surrounding mountains, seeking to become a part of the terrain. In the quest to create an abode that fits in with its natural habitat, Ant Studio, has created a stunning double-height wooden and stone façade with sloping roofs, cantilevered decks, and glass sky roofs, designed around the existing natural elements on the site. In the words of the architect, the project attempts to blur the lines between the landscape and the built. It poses to be the habitat nirvana that the client sought.
6. Hexalace by Studio Ardete
Location: Mohali, Punjab
Hexalace, designed by Studio Ardent, is situated in a tight commercial plot with challenging building norms in Mohali. It became perceptible from the beginning that the concept will be a result of the innovations in the facade. Considering the climatic conditions involving extreme heat, and the building front facing west, the façade emerged as a shield of stratifying elements. The primary curtain wall, recessed to leave pockets of air between the screen and the main building, increases the time lag and subsequently reduces the heat gain. Therefore, the facade, by its inherent virtue of convergence, acts as bronchioles for the structure. Additionally, the presence of balconies that house small clusters of green makes the working environment even more rejuvenating. Thus, the building is an amalgamation of bold use of geometry along with a respiratory experience for the user.
7. Imagine Studio at The Trees by Studio Lotus
Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Imagine Studio is an adaptive re-use project in Mumbai designed by Studio Lotus. The architecture weaves nature, heritage, and urbanism through a compelling narrative of evolving contexts. The scheme, initiated as a design for a marketing office, is shaped into an exercise for place-making, replacing a large industrial campus. Existing buildings and its elements were recycled not only to underline their relevance in the bygone eras but also to add meaning as important design punctuations in the narrative. The timeless architectural forms derived from the current industrial sheds and the materiality of concrete, steel, brass, and timber work on the principle of Wabi-Sabi, which would allow the buildings to age beautifully with time. The design further simulates the filtering of light from the leafy canopy of rain trees at the site, connecting the spaces to memories and identities.
8. Infosys Campus by Morphogenesis
Location: Nagpur, Maharashtra
The Infosys Campus by Morphogenesis considers sustainability in its broadest sense, with not limiting solely to the conservation of water, energy, and resources, but to tectonic perfection of the detail, the process, and the wisdom of a thousand years of the architecture of that region. The objective was to conceive an office that complements the shift in contemporary Indian workplace culture and a campus that would embark on discovering new dimensions to the link between people, place, and space. Thus, the masterplan attempts to amalgamate tradition with technology and establish a built environment that is a virtual landscape, for people to inhabit with adaptability, flexibility, and resilience serving as key values that would over a period of time, enable the campus to become a prototype for innovation in the design of sustainable workplace environments.
9. Maya Somaiya Library by Sameep Padora & Associates
Location: Kopargaon, Maharashtra
The site for the small addition of Maya Somaiya Library within a school in rural Maharashtra was a fragment between existing buildings and the school boundary, preempting a linear building form to adjust the area and program requirements for the chosen site. Alluding to the intuitive impetus that children have towards the landscape, the studio imagined the library building to be a formal extension of the ground, using brick as material for its tactility, availability as well as its utility as insulation against the harsh sun. The construction technology for the project makes a case to reexamine the binaries of the global and local as being in opposition. A hybrid of principles ranging from the Catalan tile vaulting system to the compression ring detail from the work of Eladio Dieste in Uruguay was part of the designing process.
10. KMC Corporate Office by RMA Architects | innovative technology
Location: Hyderabad, Telangana
Located in Cyber City, Hyderabad, the KMC Corporate Office employs the idea of a double skin as an energy-saving and visually striking device. The inner skin of the building is a reinforced concrete frame with commonly used aluminum windows whereas, the outer façade comprises a custom cast aluminum trellis with hydroponic trays to grow a variety of plant species. The trellis also has an integrated misting system to control and regulate the amount of water released to the plants and trays. Unlike other green walls, in this project, the screen also takes on an aesthetic function of a dynamic façade where a variety of plant species are organized in a way to create patterns. These plants bloom at various times of the year, bringing attention to different parts of the building façade through the changing seasons.
