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Abin Design Studio The Materiality Of Spareness

Domus India

September 2107

As India’s urban landscape is changing, architectural interventions in the form of institutions or housing could essentially define the future character of these nodes of growth and development. However, institutional buildings often imagine themselves to be silos of expertise and a professional community, imagining questions of public-ness and learning-sharing only within these silos. At the same time, the solidity and monumentality of an institutional building may be necessary in a largely undefined or scattered landscape of haphazard growth. It opens up several questions — what is the language that is required for institutional buildings? How are we to shape this typology to become more urban — in its spirit and imagination — embracing a place beyond its immediate user-community? We look closely at the architecture of the IQ City Nursing College and reflect upon some of these questions. The architects’ ability to integrate pragmatism with simplicity in materiality and construction is a key feature of this project

Abin Design Studio The Materiality Of Spareness

FROM THE ARCHITECTS’ PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Can a space teach you how to care? This question transcribed into the design intent for the IQ City Nursing College building in Durgapur, West Bengal. It is essentially an institution that nurtures young people to be empathetic and efficient care-givers. Effective communication, cultivated over time through interaction with people from various walks of life, plays a major role in sensitising one on the issues of others. The design focuses primarily on spaces that foster such interaction and the exchange of ideas through communication. Durgapur is a tier-II city in West Bengal, and happens to be the second ‘planned city’ of India after Chandigarh. As a developing industrial township, it is home to numerous privately managed colleges and universities. India, demographically a young country, is undergoing a rapid growth in the private sector educational infrastructure. Minimising the cost of construction becomes a critical issue for such investments across the country and considerable factor in design development.

This story is from the September 2107 edition of Domus India.

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