People find the nightscapes around them created by illuminated building façades interesting. These façades facilitate orientation, convey messages, communicate emotions and create attention. Façade lighting is encouraged as a method to subtly highlight and accentuate interesting features in a building’s structural and architectural form as seen from principal vantage points. Contemporary lighting solutions for building façades need to create added value for local authorities or have architectural or economic merit by making a location more beautiful and safer, showing a building off in the right light or getting a positive corporate image across.Achieving these demands great aesthetic design sensibility. Nowadays, however, lighting solutions also need to be sustainable, save resources and prevent unnecessary light pollution. The Central, Chembur, Mumbai The form of façades is determined not only by their material and shape but also by the light and its direction and colour. The appearance of a façade alters during the...

Google wanted to improve the aesthetic value and the energy efficiency of its offices in New York at the 111 Eighth Avenue, one of the largest buildings in town. During the renovation, they needed a window that would incorporate the essential sustainable and energy efficient characteristics, while simultaneously being sturdy and extremely durable. The innovative R&D department of ALUMIL, developed a tailor made version of the excellent casement window SUPREME S91, which is specially designed for passive houses. A customized solution of this particular window was chosen by Google Inc. In total, 3,500 windows were fabricated for the successful renovation of Google’s fenestration at its central offices in New York. The product was specially designed in order to meet the high requirements of passive houses (certified by the German Passive House Institute). It is ideal for heavy duty, insulated casement windows with high security level. The system is characterized for...

Inserted as anchor points on one of the principal nodes of the city of Lucknow, the two institutions the Jayaprakash Narayan Interpretation Centre, also known as the Museum of Socialism, and the Jayaprakash Narayan International Convention Centre, take on the onus of becoming contemporary landmarks that inspire the development of the urban fabric around them. The museum’s architecture and experience design has not been envisioned to be mere repositories of frozen moments of the past, but designed with the intention of making it alive and active participant in the contemporary dynamics of the historic city of Lucknow.The external façade strives to achieve fitting, sensitive and gallant negotiations with the contrasting and oft conflicting contexts of urbanity and nature. The terracotta cladding responds to the integrity of a historic cityscape. The blank walls of the simplified triangle are born out of the need for the museum’s introverted character, but belie the...

Aira is a boutique hotel with forty guest rooms spread over five floors located in the commercial heart of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. With many concrete structures around, the hotel wasn’t getting the prominence it deserved. The client wanted the hotel to stand out visually. To address this issue, the designer, Shankar Narayan Architects, created a layer of colourful panels over the building façade. It was a visual element that would be memorable and longlasting. The Challenge: One major factor that the architect considered before starting the renovation was the harsh sunlight of Vijayawada. Some of the primary challenges in panel formation were: Ensuring free movement of air through the panels and at the same time allowing privacy in the road facing rooms. Providing shade to the hotel’s façade Creating a dynamic effect by allowing gentle movement of the panels and yet making sure the structure is strong. The Solution: Shankar...

Shape, colour and material all convey emotions, tell stories and inspire new ideas. FunderMax India offers a host of cutting edge building exterior solutions and is well-known for their cladding products. The state-of-the- art panels, manufactured in Austria, effuse elegance with tasteful patterns that can enhance the look of all kinds of outer surfaces. Max Exterior is a high-quality construction product which is used especially for long-lasting balcony and façade claddings and has extremely effective weather protection qualities. The range of applications with Max exterior is becoming increasingly wider, and the range of decors is also achieving continually new dimensions in terms of nuances and variety. The Exterior panels are duromer high-pressure laminates (HPL) that are produced in lamination presses under great pressure and high temperature. Celebrating the brand’s 10th anniversary in India this year, FunderMax, since its flag off in the country, has come a long way. In a...

Morphogenesis is a 21 year old architectural firm founded by architects Sonali and Manit Rastogi. Ever since their inception in 1996, Morphogenesis has had a reputation of being an innovative practice at the forefront of thought leadership in design. They look at all aspects of the context and arrive at an innovative response to the physical, geographical and cultural conditions that address the user brief, and ultimately aspiration. They have done over 450 projects across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the UAE. [caption id="attachment_27801" align="alignnone" width="774"] Pearl Academy by Morphogenesis[/caption] Morphogenesis has over 130 professionals in Delhi and Bangalore offices. Recipient of over 80 international and national awards, Morphogenesis provides specialized services in distinct verticals like master planning, residential, commercial, workplace, institutional, hospitality, interiors and landscape designs, all with a strong backbone of ‘Green Design’ The distinguished architects, Manit Rastogi and Sonali Rastogi candidly spoke to WFM...

‘A façade is a building’s primary exterior face. It generally includes the main entry to the building and has the most elaborate architectural features. As the most public face of a building, a façade is particularly important to your business. Studies have shown that thoughtful design improvements often lead to greater sales for a business by attracting more customers. Façade Types Looking at contemporary building envelopes (façades), it is obvious that various types of façade systems and materials have been innovatively and architecturally incorporated into buildings. As a majority, façade types mentioned in Figure 1 have been in practice in the sector. In this article, I will be highlighting the various types of glazed façade screen structures and the safety precautions to be considered in the design and engineering stage by architects, façade consultants and façade design engineers, especially considering façade safety and security aspects. Framed Façade Systems  Framed systems...

Zak World of Facades through its 27th edition globally and 6th edition in Mumbai, once again took up the ongoing cause of empowering the facade industry and bringing together the stakeholders to discuss and dwell on some novel concepts and ideas like ventilation, solar shading, structural glass, alternative facade materials - both natural and synthetic in nature, natural cladding material, GFRC and a lot more. The one day conference held every year in prominent metropolitan cities of India is becoming a ‘go to’ event for the most prominent and appreciated names from the construction industry in India. This time, at Mumbai, it was no different when the facade experts from India and abroad converged and shared their expertise and experience in order to achieve best façade execution practices. Needless to say, this edition exhibited some of the finest facade products and hosted some highly technical, but relevant to the Indian...

Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, inaugurated a new campus at Airoli in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in April 2016. The design for Capgemini (I Gate) Development Center, Airoli, Mumbai, attempts to create a high density, low-rise development to cope up with the expected future growth. The podium has been carefully articulated with a combination of majestic steps, water bodies and landscaping to soften the effect of parking space below. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="774"] Capgemini - Building 5 & 6 of Phase 2(Office building’s east elevation)[/caption] As a design philosophy, open spaces diverse in nature are provided at various locations which help in facilitating the community experience. In a constant endeavour to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, multiple energy conservation measures were adopted to reduce the energy consumption of this campus by 0.7kwh/Sqft/month. A play in glazing pattern, facing the landscaped podium,...

WFM: Tell us about your design firm, your journey as an architect, and a few of your recently completed innovative and iconic projects? Yatin Patel : With a vision to establish a multi-faceted design consultancy firm and to extend its services pan India, I co-founded DSP Design Associates with Mehul Shah and Bimal Desai, two prominent visionaries in the architectural industry. DSP Design Associates credit their goodwill to a healthy clientele, having designed over 200 million Sq ft spread across over 1000 projects. The crux of the business success comes from a research driven, highly scientific approach to projects, irrespective of the scale and scope of the project. Every project is assigned a well thought, sui generis treatment in terms of strategy, vendor recruitment, execution and quality control. In addition to commercial and residential real estate, the organization also services verticals like hospitality and industrial architecture. DSP Design commands expertise...

With the advent of digital design documentation, the last decade has witnessed a significant departure from patterned linear geometries to more irregular and abstract building forms. Since the building façade is manufactured, and manufacturing efficiency governs the time frame and cost of the building, the key to successful implementation lies in the review and optimization of the building design to achieve a cost-effective solution while mitigating large adverse impacts on the building aesthetics that the designer and the owner have committed to. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="774"] Unilever Indonesia Headquarters, Jakarta. ©Henry N.[/caption] In 2014, Unilever Indonesia envisioned to consolidate their operations across Jakarta into a single building owned and operated by them. Inhabit was approached to provide façade and BMU Engineering, lighting design, green building consultancy and acoustic/audio-visual design consultancy services. The services were delivered seamlessly by Inhabit’s specialist teams based in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. The building’s...

VR Bengaluru, popularly known as “Black Box on Whitefield Road” is located in Whitefield, one of the fastest growing business districts in Bengaluru. The centre is a mixed-use development covering an area of 9,00,000 Sq ft spread across a 4.5 acre plot. A unique community centric, integrated lifestyle destination, VR Bengaluru plays host to a multi-level premium retail arcade with an extensive portfolio of 114 leading global and Indian brands, a nine-screen multiplex that includes an IMAX and India’s largest Gold Class cinemas, a 54 key boutique hotel & residences – The Waverly, collaborative communal work spaces for start-ups and entrepreneurs – The Hive, phenomenal dining options including several pubs, cafes and restaurants and an upscale food court. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="774"] Front view of the facade - VR Bengaluru[/caption] The overall façade comprises of the following four key elements: Curtain Wall glazing Atrium Skylight Textured walls Punch Windows, Eastern...

WFM: Please introduce your firm and yourself James Law (JL): My architectural firm is called James Law Cybertecture and the name Cybertecture represents the kind of work I have been pursuing and hope to continue in the future as well. We do very forward looking futuristic architecture, which tries to marry the latest innovation and technology with people, spaces and the modern world. We try to work around advanced architecture where we attempt to establish a connection between the latest innovations in technology with the people and spaces of the modern world. I got into architecture by chance. At the age of seven, I happened to watch a black and white film titled ‘The Fountainhead’ in which the main protagonist is an architect. Since then, I have worked hard towards my dream and am now practising on my own. WFM: It is almost more than a decade since you started...

WFM: Tell us briefly the purpose of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the GRIHA Council. Sanjay Seth (SS): TERI was established in 1974 with an initial focus on documentation and information dissemination. Over the years, it has emerged as a research institute and a think tank, to provide efficient utilization of energy and sustainable use of natural resources in the process of development. TERI is one of the largest institutions in developing countries that work towards sustainability, formulating local and national level strategies in shaping global solutions to critical issues. It has over 30 years of excellence in research and innovation. GRIHA Council is an independent not-for-profit society established jointly by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India (GoI). It promotes and facilitates GRIHA - India’s own green building rating system. GRIHA is a rating tool that...

Global market for Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is projected to grow from a current low of US$5B to a high of US$26B by 2022. This represents an exponential growth of 27 per cent CAGR. There appears to be a sudden surge of interest in BIPV. It is not driven by the finite space available for rack mounted rooftop PV. BIPV, as applied to the façade, will offer the best option to increase solar integration into the built environment. This appears to be consistent with the big rush for decentralised building and nett zero energy buildings. While we can certainly afford to be optimistic about the surging interest in BIPV, there remain certain fundamental real world challenges which need to be overcome before BIPV can be expected to take traction within the building sector. The complexity of these challenges, aesthetical, efficiency and commercial in nature, are the primary reasons why BIPV has...

Skylights in India Traditionally, skylights have been a European concept, where natural light is a scarcity. India is a country full of natural light. With more than 300 bright sunny days a year, why would we need a skylight anyway? However, in the recent past, the design trends have changed. The living patterns have changed. More so, to accommodate the Western style of architecture and living. Contemporary designs are more popular now even in India. So, why not fancy skylights? However, if we do not follow certain aspects of designing a proper skylight customised to the Indian climatic conditions, it might be a disaster and one might be living in an ‘oven’ practically. Choosing a proper design along with materials that are more suitable for local conditions is the key to incorporating a skylight into your building. The very purpose of installing a skylight is to bring natural light into...