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Temple View , Hughes Road - Sumptuous Structure
Category
Project
Date
Feb 2022
Writer
Vinay Patil
Temple View , Hughes Road - Sumptuous Structure
The project is loacted at the most prominent roads of Mumbai. After looking at the site no other briefing was required. The location has a blend of Heritage buildings , modern buildings which are moslty residential zone. Many a times location plays an integral part of our vision for a tower. Since the site was very close to Arabian Sea, having sea view for each flat was thought of. Since the plot is compact and has roads on all 3 sides of the plot, commercial on the ground floor was proposed . There are luxury car showrooms and jewellery shops close to this building which was taken as a tool to propose for a commercial.
Initial Thought Process
While planning since the plot is 1000 sq. mts. It was challenging to fit all the brief into one project. Concept wise as a team Vinay Patil Architects thought of a single flat per floor. The initial sketches have the elevators opening to the flat directly. Since this is a building which is above 70 Mts its categorised as a High- Rise Building.
The requirement of staircase and elevators increases drastically. With planning the typical there are 2 more constraints. Firstly, is adding a ramp parking for the residences and secondly having an independent parking and access to commercial within the same project. It took a lot of time to amalgamate all the features in the very same project. All this planning of commercial one level and car park for 7 floors helped push the residential flats to this higher floor. Most of the buildings in the surrounding area are just 5-7 floors. This gave an unobstructed view of the Arabian sea and the Queens necklace to each apartment.
Using Steel
The advantage of using steel is incredible in any project today. Time is an important factor for any project. Steel helps the structure span longer distance with few columns, this makes the structure light thus reducing the deal load of the building.
Today even formwork of the structure is made of steel and aluminium. This helps in casting a slab in 9 days which earlier used to take 21-30 days. We architects find steel good in giving strength, beauty, and design freedom. Its fast, efficient, and resourceful. It is fire resistant and can be recyclable. Steel also helps in making the building earthquake resistant.
Architecture Features
Planning of this building was to propose lot of French windows which allowed more interaction of the resident to the outside. Concept was more of a contemporary design building which had cleaning lines not too heavy to the eye. Using Full height windows allows more natural light into each residence. Since there is a recreational floor after the parking levels, inculcating landscape in this floor allowed increasing the green fabric within the building. The idea was to re-use, re-collect water and light. This allowed reducing carbon footprint of the project.
Geometrics
Since the project was a small plot the parking levels took the shape of the plot as it allowed to fit more carparks within a floor plate. But the residential tower we wanted it to look taller, more vertical. If you see the proposed tower the elements used in the car park grill has a more vertical screen which helps mare the building, look taller. Using the right colours helps us achieve the concept. Proposing a triplex Sky Villa at the top for aspiring industrialist who are in constant look for such residences. To increase the green cover, addition of planters to the screen covering the car park was done. The realisation was that keeping the details simple helps execute the project better. Keeping all the details functional is very important for us so each element proposed is thoroughly thought thru.
Software used for designing and detailing
There are 3 stages in every design a project goes through. First the drawings are made in AutoCAD which closes all the 2-dimensional aspects of a project. Later to make a test fit in 3 dimension is done. Sketch Up 3D software is used. It gives first cut analysis of the project. There are series of alterations and modification which this project went through. Adding a roof terrace program for the members of the tower. The roof top terrace has lots of plants. Since there will be lot of wind specific plants only can be proposed. The architect added to their team various consultants who helped them gather and compile a comprehensive network of Services, Structure, Vertical Travel, Landscape, Parking, Façade Lighting, Glazing, Window Consultant etc.
Project Experience & Timelines
This project is a dream come true for any architect. To start with blessed with a great client. Having a client who supports an architect and completely trusting them with their approach is very rare. This helped the team explore various options. The project was therefore more resolved. Keeping a concept idea as pure as possible is not easy to plan today. It was a proud feeling to achieve all that was discussed in the preliminary stage. There was a sense of accomplishment in the design. A typical design is what was strived for and what can be stated that this design is not very common.
The Project has received its IOD approval. The plan is to start work post November 2021. The client is targeting to completing this project, if possible, in 36 Months. It’s a herculean task not easy to achieve but they shall strive for. So, the hope is to see this project be an addition to the Mumbai Skyline by 2024.
Quoteshoot:
“Getting a client who trusts an architects’ vision and intent today is much more important. We were blessed with our client who has clearly supported us all through this project. The design which we have proposed has higher floor to floor heights and large spans. This allows the framework and columns to be loaded at the periphery of the building leaving a column less interiors for the flat within. A person who would buy a flat gets complete flexibility with respect to internal planning of his or her flat. We have specifically kept ramp parking which is a luxury today considering the restrictions of a plot or location. With a mere 1000 sq. mts plot out team has designed a ramp parking. We have proposed MiVan Construction technique which will have the entire exterior shell in RCC this will help finish each slab casting in 7-9 days, which would save time in the construction duration as well.”
Vinay Patil, Director, Vinay Patil Architects
