Shaping Mumbai’s New Commercial Icons – Chambers, Mumbai

The striking Chambers building in Andheri’s bustling Chakala commercial area is termed the diamond of the suburban business district, owing to its unique form and corresponding functionality. Once an old building with retail establishments, and then a storehouse for construction materials for the Mumbai metro project, Chambers is now an iconic commercial premises that has matured with its context.

The project was first conceived in 2008, at a time when conversations around the Mumbai metro were taking shape, and we were taking root as a young and independent design studio. The building form today embodies the story behind the evolution of not only the site and its context but also the ambitious goals of our studio.

Chambers was completed in 2022 after 13 years of planning and execution, during which the design unfolded through the challenges of the metro construction along the adjoining road, modifications in municipal and construction rules, as well as tight site and height restrictions.

The site is an odd-shaped, curvilinear plot, positioned in front of the Western Express Highway metro station. Owing to the latter, the frontage of the building was compromised, only to be salvaged by a unique design proposition that has now come to define the building as the jewel of the area. The building elevation was turned north-west diagonally at a 45-degree angle, to open it up to the busy highway and the surrounding cityscape.

The composite structure uses glass (high-performance and DGU), concrete and steel in varying proportions to achieve its one-of-a-kind design. The building’s crowning glory is the iconic diamond-shaped façade that encapsulates a grand double-height driveway that enables free circulation of traffic within the limited plot, and a breezy pyramidal atrium at the bottom.

From here, extending angularly towards the sky is a 12-metre cantilever that forms the top half of the diamond. Differently sized floor plates averaging 5,000 sq ft support this configuration on the inside, increasing bit by bit into the freestanding triangular edge as one moves towards the higher floors.