Energy Management

“The aim was to create an architecture, using sustainable materials that would be a socio-cultural setting for fostering crosspollination of ideologies in young minds,” says the design team at Morphogenesis.

- Priti Kalra

The 8-acre property in Greater Noida has been approached with the idea of a grid-like street pattern from which the volumes of different blocks have been generated.

“The street is an urban space and the community its caretaker,” shares the team. All movement has been aligned along one main street, with individual blocks looking into this primary circulatory spine. Secondary and tertiary roadways branch out from here. The mass along the horizontal grid blocks southwestern winds, while maintaining a connection with the existing building. The mass along the vertical grid enables the inflow of southeastern monsoon winds.

Developed by dividing the mass into modules over a 3x3x6 grid, the building mass is an efficiently functioning composition of solids and voids. Courtyards and terrace gardens of varying scales and configurations, as well as strategically located circulation cores carve their way out of the enveloping volume. An inwardlooking concept ensures that all rooms open out to the courtyards, while a largely opaque façade is presented to the outside.

“The idea behind the layout is borrowed from the concept of a chawl wherein rooms occupy the external periphery, circulation takes place via corridors, and courtyards in the centre become a space for extended living,” explains the team. Each courtyard boasts of a unique character which is dependent on the occupants that use it.