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Responsive, Communicative & Adaptive Façade Lighting

By: Indrajit Kembhavi, Kembhavi Architects & Kembhavi Architecture Foundation

We are in a busy world – a zone where days and nights are intervened together through global economics and dynamic time zones. Work and recreation are no longer time-bound, extending through long nights.

Buildings and lifestyles are changing rapidly keeping in tune with globalization in an era of intense competition and faster time-cycles for every activity. Architecture and buildings are rapidly evolving to keep pace with change – from smarter technologies, and cleaner environments to energy-efficient and dynamically responsive buildings – and are no longer static mute spectators but are active and participative. Artificial intelligence and Iot have added new dimensions to an otherwise un-animated space.

Facade design and façade lighting industry is also rapidly evolving by leaps and bounds. Apart from being “simply beautiful”, it has now moved on to be responsive communicative and adaptive. From simple modules of analysing glare due to sunlight, it has moved further to assimilate climatic data, respond to changes in weather, etc.

Lighting too is communicative and creative. It not only adds magic to the building but also builds identity not only to the edifice it represents but also creates a storyline to a cityscape. From static to dynamic, from muted to being a statement, both facade and façade lighting became primary, “identity makers”.

Façade also can be a communicative tool as pioneered by the famous “Times Square” of New York, where lights & façades are also informative and communicative.

In short, façades are also a great advertising tool. The changes in the industry are rapid and I’m sure that the emerging possibilities will be mind-blowing.

Ice Cube Lounge & Fine Dining Hubli, Karnataka

The Huge Display Boards (An Example of Media Façade) on One Side of the Project

Ice cube – a dining lounge destination, is an elegant glass cube-like structure and is the first of its kind in Hubli city. The building seamlessly holds all three spaces with one another, yet allows each to hold its own space. The façade is designed to complement the character of the building by defining the spaces within.

The ground floor houses the fine dining restaurant which has ceiling-to-floor glass panels which give an indoor-outdoor connect. The bar lounge space on the first floor is intentionally designed to be located on the road facing terrace. It has a toughened glass floor with lighting below it. A roof of clear laminated glass and vast sliding glass panels bring in the breeze and panoramic views.

The huge display boards (an example of a media façade) on one side, with the light lines that define the structure on the other, create a sense of shadow, a pattern that adds drama to the building.

QUICK FACTS:
Project: ICE CUBE Lounge & Fine Dining
Location: Hubli, Karnataka
Client: Venkatesh A Kabadi, Vinay R Burbure, Kunal K Pawar
Architect: KAF
Commencement Date: 2015
Completion Date: 2016

Landmark Vertica Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Landmark VERTICA is an uber-luxury residential tower located majestically on the upmarket Peters Road in Chennai. The project comprises an eclectic mix of carefully crafted luxury dwellings interlaced with spaces of recreation, interaction and entertainment cocooned in luxury.

Concept Inspiration:

Proximity to the sea inspired the conceptualization of Landmark VERTICA inspired by lighthouses, adding aesthetic splendour and significance from the sea. The thousand-light mosque as a venerable neighbour incited the use of light as a continuity to the language of the design. The culture of Chennai being ‘conservative yet relevant’ was the thread that tied all the other ideas together to result in a design possessing a harmonious medley of class and comfort.

It was the acknowledgement of this culture that led to an understated straight-line design with the pinnacle offering the glamour quotient. It is an apt and witty representation of the quintessential Tamilian dressed in simplicity, while the crowning peak represents his phenomenal genius.

Facade Lighting:

The façade of the building is designed distinctively to stand out as an edifice in Central Chennai. Formal & simple in aesthetics defined by warm, woody hues and horizontal bands at its lower levels capped glamorously with four strong geometric patterns, throwing beautiful light patterns from carefully embedded LED strips, the edifice has brightened up the neighbourhood.

QUICK FACTS:
Project: Landmark VERTICA
Location: Chennai
Client: Landmark Construction Pvt. Ltd.
Architect: Kembhavi Architecture Foundation
Other Consultants: Landscape Designers: NC Design & Architecture
Structural Consultants: Sigma Consultants
MEP Consultant: e Matrix
HVAC Consultant: e Matrix
Plumbing Consultant: e Matrix
Materials Used for Façade & Fenestrations: External façade: structural glazing with inbuilt lighting; External bands: Pre-coated aluminium;
Wall: Renova texture paint;
Flooring: Italic marble;
Dado: Italian marble/limestone/land stone;
Sanitary: Villeroy & Boch
Commencement Date: 2011
Completion Date: 2013