Located on the Dwarka Expressway within close proximity of the airport and the metro in suburban NCR, Ansal Amantre is a luxurious housing development that comprises of the best infrastructure and amenities at an affordable price. Amidst the sundry housing developments coming up in this region, the challenge is to create a prototype that distinguishes itself from the others, not just in form but also in terms of its own architectural identity. The 10 acre site consists of 9 towers of 3 and 4 bedroom apartments, along with sports facilities, a primary school, a shopping complex and a clubhouse. With lush green lawns and landscaped gardens, Amantre aims to provide a green aperture amongst modern urban living.
The project was designed through a process that involved careful examination of building block morphologies with respect to their siting and their solar orientation. A number of options were explored and interactively discussed with the client’s team before finalizing. The chosen layout explores the complexities of not just the built volumes but also of the open spaces. The apartment towers vary in height from 8 to 24 floors and are strategically placed to offer mutual shading and to provide varied views from the different sides of the site, thereby creating a unique skyline. Maintaining sunlight and shading as prime concerns for the unit layouts, and to maximise the utility of the available space, three apartments share a common core of access, with sufficient open areas in the form of balconies to bring in natural daylight and ventilation. The buildings have side glazing to allow light and also to give a face-lift to them, increasing their visual appeal. Each tower gets 2 upper level terraces that have green rooftops to facilitate an environment-friendly, sustainable development. The overhangs and balconies provide shading to the respective apartments and create open breakout spaces for the inhabitants. The open spaces, too, offer a rich variety and form ranging from large consolidated gardens for community activities to smaller spaces for specific recreational and sports facilities. In addition, there are the upper level gardens in each block that re-establish a relationship with landscape for the upper floors – something that is lost in high-rise buildings. The result is a project that creates a rich experience of urban character with its complex and varied spatial and volumetric organization.