Text Kaiwan Mehta
Photos Lalita Tharani, Manish Gala
Dramatic and dynamic are two words that would surely define this project;
a project that
produces an architectural endospace within an exoskeleton.The inner-shell space is created by employing elements that are disparate but through design partner with each other to produce a singular narrative. The public space is a shrine to light – not in a reverential sense but in a celebratory way; and that is where the project is totally focussed. Each of the different elements – rings of light, illuminated floating grid, geometric scoops that allow
seating, reflective surfaces versus the structural grid of the ceiling play an independent role; they are made coherent through the brightness of light. The space shrine is constructed through a series of floating design-devices.
The entral column is the strongest ornamental element independently occupying a position for itself.
The space as if imploded and from a core (maybe the column) a range of different objects/ elements/devices exploded to fly out and find the right places for itself within the exoskeleton. The exoskeleton peeps through
its waffle slab and merges with the implosion in the design of the meeting rooms at the mezzanine level, as they seem to emerge from the structure of the exoskeleton but contribute to the shrine through their forms
and materiality – the brightness of light, and design materials
reflecting/responding to that light.It is a shrine to the dynamic expressions of materials and lighting. A floating volume exists between the illuminated
skin above and the geometric protrusions that form the seating at the ground plane; however an enveloping of space, where the ground would reach out to
the ceiling as well as the other way round would have further contained the sense of an interactive space. The dynamism of the elements will need to
contain the ergonomics of publicness, where people can meet and talk, without being overwhelmed by design. The element of design is extremely strong, and as much as it articulates vibrantly the sense of carved space and celebration of design, yet it could overpower the sense of public-ness.
There are levels at which design reaches stages of ecstasy and yet allows human life to wind around it. Design no longer is the humble shell which will be animated by human interaction or activity; design is strong voice today, and human activities will at times reshape themselves to engage with design. Design is no more created to support or enhance human life and its activities,
but it defines built-world in a pronounced way, it exaggerates,and justifiably so, the sense of space. This relationship between design and human life has hit a new chord now and ‘Reflected Topography’ is a bold attempt at making design primary; if design is now the shape of an independent activity, with which human life will have to find its own ‘patterns’ of engagementlanguage
then discussing design will need bold thoughts, words, and leaps of imagination too. For now let us enjoy the shrine as the opened up landscape of intensepublic-ness; the shrine is no more the intense private space, and
the public space is no longer to be generously available to all; the
two have somewhere collapsed as the world is shaping new kinds spaces – to be dynamic and spectacular is one of its functional obligations.
