Bangalore’s central areas are faced nowadays with fast and somewhat chaotic densification. While we believe that density can, and many times must be seen as a form of sustainability, we also admit that the relationship between habitation within an old urban fabric and the increase of its density is often a fragile one, as places might lose their character.
Location: V.V Puram, Bangalore.
Architect: A.J Architects
Built-up area: 13500 sq.ft
Typology: Residential (Apartment)
Photographs: Courtesy A.J Architects
Completed: feb 2022
Our project seeks an appropriate answer to this problem by mediating between different sizes and densities in a central neighbourhood of V.V Puram with small streets, long, narrow plots, and a puzzle of old and new buildings of all types and scales.
The volumetric proposal seeks to partially open the building to the street, in the depth of the plot. Because of this, the volume facing the street is less compact and the ground floor is more transparent, in order to allow a better visual connection.
The exteriors were conceived to be individual, but connected as an urban block rather than just a series of individual apartment. one-story, custom fabricated steel balcony wrappers, with framed visual boxes of about one and half story jog vertically from house to house to create a visual rhythm across the façade. The balconies adorn wooden ceilings to add. The overall façade is painted with grey texture which gives the overall surface a contemporary, yet familiar texture.
