ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. started its journey in 1996 as an architecture firm, and in 2010, it added engineering facilities to offer to the clients. ANA is delivering projects globally with a diversified team of designers and architects. The firm adopted BIM technology in 2015.
ANA believes in designing something by ensuring sustainability and also functionally well-solved design that serves a goal. They have delivered various projects like university, research center, factory, interior, hospitality, retail, etc. The buildings’ efficiency is their energy use and their geographical, cultural, functional, and economic appropriateness. Buildings are considered the physical representation of both desire and economic efficiency. All design decisions closely follow sustainability for the environment, energy, and society, and the economy.
1. Kashmir University law faculty building, Jammu and Kashmir, India | ANA Design
There is a wide glass front in the construction design that blurs the distinctions between inside and out, and all academic and faculty buildings are designed around a central atrium. The central staircase abuts the atrium space and, apart from being a practical design, ends up being a “social space” for all weather.
The house, to keep it cool during the warm season, is naturally ventilated. However, the high-performance glazing and UPVC fenestration system allow the building to be used in cold weather without air conditioning. The main structural framing is Steel PEB, and all floors are provided with deck slabs. The external envelope is constructed from locally procured isolated double-wall brickwork.
3. Landmark Village Development Hotel & Apartments, Lagos, Nigeria
In Lagos, the Landmark Village is the best-known venue for events in the region and hosts West Africa’s top industry, leisure, lifestyle shows, and events. The ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd came up with a model in the village to create an urban street. A linear pedestrianized shopping walk, packed with stores, cafes, walk-up studios and a multi-screen cinema were advocated by design.
The city of Lagos is sorely missing public spaces. It is a city of enclosed compounds and high border fences. The Landmark Village Broad-walk has been, arguably, the only family attraction that is not a mall. The security at the perimeter is discreet. Via numerous “entry feeds” to the broad walk, the parking was built so that people can travel within different zones.
Within the retail circulation, the event drops off is also handled. The visual axis identifies various areas of interest and activity along the Broad walk, and at different visits, or even time of day, different events can be encountered once. Reducing the import of finished goods and using local suppliers and contractors to complete the building was an important part of the sustainability and localization initiatives.
The entire façade system was manufactured locally, and the landscape and exterior paving are almost entirely localized. Although the design language is contemporary, the color and material palette draw heavily from Landmark’s built sense and the regional art and colors of the area. High-quality, VRV air conditioning is used in all high-concentration areas. Its high-performance glasswork and built-in shading devices, and layered facade systems allow low heat gain and reduced air condition cost.
However, ANA has planned the leasable spaces close to Landmark’s Property Creation and Leasing Team to ensure a balanced tenant mix of international brands and local businesses, going beyond the engineering steps. The “market” not only has a distinctly lively, local feel, it also strives to become a repeatable model for urban growth.
3. Calabar Shopping Mall, Calabar, Nigeria | ANA Design
In 2013, ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. was assigned by the Artee Group of Nigeria as the primary design consultants for their retail real estate development ventures. The aspiring Nigerian population was driving a massive consumption-driven economy. By providing well-designed and well-maintained modern retail malls in key cities, the Artee Group decided to create long-term value.
BIM models of the entire building were built for Calabar mall, and the design of facilities and structures was incorporated into the scheme. Every building part and its construction technology has been carefully dissected and evaluated. Working closely with the consumer, ANA helped Artee build contract management and import/purchase system and philosophy.
The uniqueness of the whole concept, system, and execution is that both malls have been completed in 36 months from design to construction and handover. These buildings are constructed with locally procured steel parts, shaped into trusses and portals on the site, and are designed to harvest daylight in the hypermarket areas.
The walls’ external cladding was rendered with interlocking PUF sandwich plates mounted on a low gauge steel sub-frame. The use of enthalpy control in cooling is very revolutionary. A powerful BMS system has been introduced to allow owners to control many buildings’ functioning from a single position. Imports were timed for use, inventory bills were reviewed and vetted to prevent waste and over-buying, systems were introduced to operate on-site stores to reduce theft and waste.
4. Reliance Technology Group Research Facility, Navi Mumbai, India
The concept behind designing a workplace that meets the workers’ socializing needs is to allow individuals to work together for the company when ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. came on board to build 500,000 sq. of the Reliance Technology Company. They realized that they have to implement the energy-efficient architecture, apart from running all 48 super specialty laboratories to global standards.
To protect the environment from its adverse effects, the facility should provide secure disposal of any harmful chemicals used for testing. One such style is the prismatic glass entrance and atrium. It is esthetically pleasing to the eye and eliminates the surrounding areas’ solar heat waves and noise emissions. The atrium also serves to socialize and exchange ideas with scientists and researchers, potentially contributing to potential partnerships and innovations.
The Internet of Things (IoT), which is a central control system for buildings where all devices are connected to a smart engine and all other devices connected to it are running and managed, is the smart solution. IoT helps save energy and effort and improve employee efficiency by leveraging the data it collects from the devices it is connected to and ensuring that they run optimally without extra energy. In-built Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam is another integral design measure of the RTG facility that helps save energy and offers a high degree of thermal protection.
5. Kashmir University, Administration Building, Jammu & Kashmir, India | ANA Design
The University needed a building that was respectful of the vernacular language, but a modern building of high fit and high efficiency. The University of Kashmir’s New Administration Facility in Hazratbal, Srinagar, demonstrates its transparency, creativeness, and contemporary character while maintaining a sense of identity, culture, and environment. They wanted a building that would take advantage of new trends in open work culture, natural light, casual spaces for interaction, and conditioning of all-weather comforts.
An existing Fir tree gave the momentum to a “central” space. Simultaneously, ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. designed the building to be safe, in line with the environment, allowing confidentiality and protection. Construction functions are built-in two separate blocks, identified by the level of protection and designed around the central atrium space.
From the entrance, through the atrium room, the tree forms a focal point with connecting bridges flying through the atrium. This atrium is an “all-weather” venue for gatherings, chance meetings, debates, and temporary exhibition set-ups. The two eastern and western blocks form the bulk of the offices. The offices are all naturally illuminated. To build specified but recognizable “departments,” there is extensive use of glass
Using all-weather VRV air-conditioning, each zone or department is separately temperature controlled. The glare-free LED illumination circuits are designed to optimize the use of natural lighting. So lights near the windows and glazing can be individually turned off, although some interior lights can continue to be used.
The air-conditioning system also controls enthalpy, so the compressors shut down when the outside temperatures are suitable, and only fresh air is circulated through the building. These turn on in case it rises above a fixed stage to flush warm air. To make its use after sunset, the atrium is also lit with high performance, elevated bay lighting.
The facade is made of panels insulated with glass wool and high-performance glass. The facade design enables light to enter but regulates the entry of heat and the loss of heat during winter. Inside the office rooms, the trombone wall offers pre-heated air and can be closed during the summer months. This free heating in the central air conditioning system complements the electro-mechanical heat pump.
The building is intended in a new sense for spatial and material optimization, comfort, energy conservation, human communication, and the celebration of traditional timber architecture.
6. New Plasser India | Railway Equipment Manufacturing Facility, Gujarat, India
ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. has tried to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the Plasser project to design and introduce a combination of technologies to improve the working environment in the difficult climate of South Gujarat (especially in the summer).
Similarly, in the construction production itself, a mixture of in situ and industrial technology was used to build a system of high quality, rapid construction, and cost optimization, taking into account some gradual improvements we might achieve, as well as the opportunity to contract companies to stretch their existing capabilities and achieve the expected quality.
The site schedule and process flow closely match Plasser’s production philosophy and assembly series. The sizing of grids and spans was done, taking into account the movement of products requiring production and the most optimum design against the gantry cranes needed for production by Plasser. All services entering the building and needed for manufacturing and utilities were placed sequentially close to the center of their utilization density, thus maximizing the transport services’ nature and the loss of long-term transmission in the cable pipes.
In the design of the thermal mass at the base of the building and the comfort conditions achieved by using a mix of traditional cooling methods and radiant floors and geothermal air tunnels, the two most important interventions were too. The framework is exposed cast in situ concrete for floors, plinths, and a PEB fully insulated building above 4.8 meters in height.
The foundation pits were used to lay HDPE pipes to allow input air to be cooled before moving through TFA’s AND AHU’s using geothermal energy. A radiant floor cooling system is designed to cool the floors using PEX pipes embedded into the floor using a secondary circuit of the return water from the main chiller system.
The solar plant on the roof will supply the required energy for the comfort conditioning systems’ operation during most of the year (except for the monsoon period). The scheme for the control of rainwater is also designed to guarantee zero run-offs from the site. The whole site is graded to channel water into large holding pits linked to recharging wells in turn.
7. Leh Satellite Campus, Kashmir University, Jammu and Kashmir, India
ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd., apart from the usual aspects of space planning and structure and budget, coping with the university’s very new relationship. The challenge was to deal with nature and the elements and fit into stringent administrative norms and procedures. For instance, under the State Public Works Department, the building had to be carried out using licensed, specialty contractors for different trades.
The local council was very keen on learning the design and the architectural language in particular. There were also some motifs and prints to be used in the buildings that are obligatory. We also decided to develop our own values and philosophies of place-making, energy conservation, passive design, and functionality within the constraints of the conventional procurement and tendering framework and the local community’s sensibilities.
ANA prevailed in various things that set the stage for this campus’s success and how other university buildings were eventually designed. Using a cavity wall device and polystyrene filling panels, the buildings are fully insulated. The windows with steel inserts are made of high-performance UPVC, and all the usable spaces are double glazed.
With gently sloping ramps linking both floors of the teaching departments, the buildings are designed for universal access. All the wastewater is treated on-site, and the buildings are lit using high-performance LED-based light fixtures. Adjacent to the mildly sloping valley’s contours, the campus is built, and each building sits on its own pedestal. Not only is it an architectural place for good weather, but it also made it possible for us to have no buildings on filled soil and to create a natural course for cloudbursts without damaging any buildings.
In fact, our careful positioning made it possible to construct the entire campus without any retaining walls. A plain, linear atrium area protected from wind and filled with light is located around the classrooms, labs, and offices. All the usable rooms were aligned in the house, so they received sunlight from the south and west. For the daytime sun, the walls often serve as a thermal mass and are our tribute to the traditional types of monasteries dotting the landscape.
8. Landmark Village Development Retail Boulevard, Lagos, Victoria Island, Nigeria | ANA Design
As a series of gradual plans, ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. developed the master plan, enabling the client to continue offering their tenant companies concrete and substantial changes and outcomes while developing and improving the infrastructure. The concept applied was to create more than 3 revenue sources with no more than 60 percent of a single stream form.
In Victoria Island, Lagos, and Nigeria’s business hub, the Landmark Event Centre is truly a well-known landmark. The design principles of placemaking have been embraced and incorporated with this consideration of the current event center and facilities’ usability. The aim was to build public spaces that promote the health, happiness, and well-being of people.
The way buildings have merged with public plazas with uninterrupted walkable connectivity was planned to create “live-work-play” urban spaces. There were strategically planned pedestrian movements and public nodes leading to the destination center at both ends and the intersection axis linking the ocean entrance. All of this must be designed while the event center and the restaurants stay alive.
The first phase of growth was broad-walk and office spaces for high-end retail/leisure. The retail block was planned as a three-story building consisting of ground and first-floor line stores, supermarket and cinema, and the second-floor open plan office space/ training center. Along the boulevard, the linear strip retail was created and enveloped and gave the space a sense of enclosure and yet accessibility on all sides.
One of the most significant components of any community or neighborhood is the delivery of the public sphere. Therefore, the designed shape and streetscape treatments were an appealing, healthy, and pleasant pedestrian environment while retaining the city’s overall visual coherence. This was done through several design responses, connecting floors and open plaza stairs, including open shop fronts, covered ground-floor retail passage, and acrylic lightboxes as part of the façade cladding scheme.
Architectural details in terms of paving designs, shaded seating, pop-up shops, sufficient widths of sidewalks, simple accessibility of ramps, and other amenities for pedestrians and the disabled to provide convenient and safe travel spaces. Well-considered locations were suggested for utilities and advertising/signage to connect well to all other street functions. Reasonable arrangements were made for entry, distribution, and parking of vehicles and, thus, catering to high-end commercial urban centers.
