Located in Chennai metropolitan at a close proximity to city’s transit hub, the site is approached from a highly buzzing Poonamalli high road. Three key components- a marketing office, an Experience centre and a Construction site office are the core of the facility.
Project Name: Experience Centre
Location: Koyembedu, Chennai
Site Area: 0.75 Acre
Built-up Area: 0.20 Lac sft
No of Floors: 1
Status: Completed
Year of Completion:2021
Firm: CnT Architects
Design Team (CnT): Amit Rastogi, Karthik P Nair, Anupama Rao
Consultants: Metal Queen (Structure), Mukund Associates (Plumbing), Lite Lab (Lighting Design), Oikos (Landscape), Graphics Beyond (Graphic Design)
Photography: Andre Fanthome
‘‘Journey through the project reveals intricately detailed spatial sequences carefully crafted by the thoughtful blend of Architecture, Landscape and Interior design. Visual frames and experiences unfold in layers to keep the visitor captivated & intrigued throughout.’’
A landscaped plaza creating a tranquil arrival experience is first on the entry sequence; doubling up as the interface between city and the main program filtering the unwanted external buzz. At point of arrival, one gets a glimpse of Intricate roof canopy of marketing office hovering over plaza feature wall, creating a sense of mystery for what lies ahead.
‘Marketing office’ is accessed through a curved alley; meandering through lush green it guides visitors to an arrival court revealing full view of the architecture. The form; conceived as an expansive canopy floating over slender metal columns shelters many pods beneath to hold the programme. Pods contain air-conditioned spaces for the reception, gallery, media room, customer studios etc. Arranged in a free plan form, their placement defines a natural movement spine along the longitudinal axis. Intricate design of ceiling and series of skylights along the spine enriches the experience of moving through the space.
The ‘Experience centre’ is accessed through a landscape buffer placed at the end of marketing office. Steps through the landscape graduate to a scaled down movement spine representing the proportions of an apartment lobby, leading to three model apartment prototypes put on display here. Placement of model apartments is juxtaposed with various semi open and open public spaces to create a very engaging and enthralling environment. Overall visitor journey is designed as two-way experience and design features are tactfully placed along the path and at important nodes to be discovered gradually and slowly.
A discreetly placed entryway at the end of experience centre leads in to the ‘Construction site office’. Encouraged to see the importance given to design of spaces for the construction team; visitors are escorted right through the common area of site office arriving on to a viewing deck opening to a panoramic view of the under construction residential township which is rising up in the background.
Environmental impact: Life span of facility is five years, post which it will be dismantled. Hence, majority of the structure is designed in steel for recyclability and reuse. The modular structural elements are going to be used for another project of the developer, making this project as sustainable as possible. Circulation spaces are well shaded and allow a lot of cross breezes, essential for comfort in hot humid weather of Chennai; reducing need of air conditioning to the minimum.
