A commercial residential project, for middle income group families. The layout was inspired by Steven Holl’s architectural adaptation of the theory of ‘Parallax’, specifically by the idea that buildings are always viewed in motion, and never from just one point of view. The result was an exercise in aesthetics, through an angled relationship of the high apartment blocks to one another, breaking the usual monotony of huge right-angled planes. This device also helped to create interesting internal courtyards at the entrance level, while providing varied angles of view from the windows and a sense of privacy as well, despite not being too far apart from each other. The adjacent blocks are visually held together with screen walls which stands separate, while being tied to the building, forming a strong architectural feature, as also providing the function of window shade and screening for the AC window units and drying of laundry.
In all our work in commercial residential projects, we have found that there is very little one can do by way of planning of the actual apartments – the combinations of living room-kitchen-bedroom-toilet has already been preconceived to the last inch by the project developer, and any variation to that is not encouraged. So RSA has over the years instead turned their design focus on the public areas like the lobbies and common community spaces.
In this instance, the user experiences a sequence of many spaces while entering the building – a partly-covered entrance, then the covered and enclosed doubled-height lobby, and finally the open green internal courtyard before entering the lifts. Around the lobby and court area are also a few community rooms for games and recreation, besides the parking, all of which took some effort, but finally achieving an architectural quality that transcends a building out of the absolutely mundane and brings it closer to an emotional experience.