PUNJAB KESARI HEADQUARTERS
Architects : Studio Symbiosis Architects
Client : Punjab Kesari
Builtup Area: 18,000 sqm
Site Area: 5200 sqm
Location: Delhi NCR, India
Foundation Stone Ceremony: 28th June 2015
Start Construction: August 2015
Location: Delhi NCR, India
Actual Condition Site: Structure Completed
Design: Britta Knobel Gupta, Amit Gupta
Lead Project Architect: Akshay Kodoori
Project Team: Pranav Semwal, Isha Pundir, Manu Sharma, Dentisa Koleva, S. Adarsh, Sara Ather
Image Credits: Studio Symbiosis
Awards: Winner Best Office Architecture India 2016-17, International Property Awards
PROJECT DURATION, LOCATION AND AWARDS:
Located in Delhi NCR (India), the project design was commissioned in 2014 and
went into construction in August 2015. The opening date for the project is
January 2017. Currently first floor slab is being casted. Punjab Kesari
headquarters won the International property award for best office Architecture
India 2016-17. It was presented at Tedx talk in Bremen, Germany in 2015 by
Britta Knobel Gupta as a part of the talk Performative Aesthetics
and at Smart Geometry Hong Kong 2014.
Punjab Kesari Headquarters is designed as
Fusion
of traditional Indian architecture and contemporary office
space, the main objective is to reduce heat gain and optimize façade opening
ratio, ensuring no artificial lighting is required on a typical day. An
animated façade is designed as an outcome of different façade opening ratio
depending on the orientation.
The inspiration was to translate a traditional
Indian façade pattern by using digital simulations into an iterative processes
to create a responsive built form. This traditional Jali
screen
creates culturally a sense of belonging. Lux level of 500 has been achieved in
the building at a workstation height from each floor plate, along with a
daylight factor of 2 over 80% of the floor plate; this is done to ensure that
artificial lighting is not required inside the building on a normal day.
A hexagonal pattern was used as a base and through iterative process various porosity patterns were generated from it to create different light conditions. This resulted in a variable opacity condition in the facade that had a dual purpose of creating performative architecture and also created variable openings on the facade in various orientations generating a design for the facade that is animating and has an inherent meaning. This resulting pattern morphs from 81% opacity on the north facade to 27% opacity on the south facade, with an intermediate opacity of 54% on East and 62% on west facade respectively.
The Jali facade is made of Glass Reinforced Concrete panels. In terms of construction tolerances a system has been adopted whereby through cnc milling, a mould will be created for the facade pattern and this mould will be used for casting the facade panels. The curvature of the entrance will be also casted using this process whereby by using digital fabrication of mould a higher accuracy in the design is achieved.
Sustainability is at the epicentre of the project embedded in form of, optimized natural lighting, cross ventilation and reduction of heat gain. The double jali screen reduces the outside air temperature in front of the glass. The colder air is going in and pulled into the atrium through the chimney effect of the atrium space and resulting in natural ventilation and reducing the indoor air temperature naturally so the cooling load for the air conditioning is reduced.
Located at an urban corner in Delhi NCR the project looks at integrating with the surroundings with two bold gestures. A sense of invitation with an urban lobby is created whereby the landscape flows inside the building creating seamless movement trajectories.
Being an office space the building is seen as an interaction zone by creating moments allowing informal interaction. A central atrium connects the various floors creating a diffused boundary condition and a visual porosity between people working on different floors. Since the design looks at no artificial lighting it makes the user feel closer to nature and allow to work in natural lighting. The office floors are dividable into smaller units to achieve flexible units ranging from 500 to 2000sqm.