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B. Arch from School of Architecture and Planning, University of Madras in 1978.
Professional experience: worked as Senior project architect with world renowed Ar. Geoffery Bawa, Sri Lanka.
Returned to India in 1987.
He started his own practice in 2003 with his Firm “Fowler and Fowler”.
Name: M/s. Firebird Institute of research and management, Coimbatore.
Cost of project: (INR) 21.4 Crore
Built-up area: 3820 sq. Meter
Client/Brief :
The Firebird Institute of Research in Management aims at creating corporate leaders through world-class, practical, experience driven management leadership.
Firebird is a part of the Shiva Tex Yarn and Bannari Amman Spinning Mills group, with expertise in spinning, garments, technical textiles, power generation, health care, automobile dealerships, food products and other areas with a turnover over 1400 Crores rupees and employ more than 8000 people.
Besides the programmatic requirements of the project, the clients wanted a facility which challenges conventional norms in educational spaces. They wanted spaces that are flexible, formal and informal at the same time and lends itself to various kinds of team and leadership building exercises.
Site/ Location/ Climate :
The site is about 5 acres which is located in the sylvan settings of Chettipalayam, around 12 kms away from Coimbatore. The terrain has significant changes in the gradient with rocky outcrops in certain areas.It enjoys a salubrious climate with temperatures varying between 25 and 35 deg. centigrade throughout the year.
Design Philosophy/Challenges :
The Campus is planned in a way that it challenges the conventional notion of teaching. The geometry of the building is de-constructed and interspersed with informal landscaped “thought” corners that blur the difference between the outside and the inside.
A central amphitheater is designed taking advantage of the gradient change, serving both as the organizing feature of the building and also
as the harbinger of life to the campus.
Various activities surround this nucleus, like the cafeteria, teaching rooms, library and discussion areas making it a pot pourie of activity.
Small landscaped nooks and terraces are created throughout the building facilitating not only daylight into the spaces but also encourage informal discussions and debate.
Dynamic Graphic Art printed on fabric not only showcases the ability Bannariamman mills but also brings a vibrant feel and adds color to the building.
The vision of the institute in creating thought leadership through methods of transformational learning, coaching and mentorship has been represented through a “triangular” motif throughout the building. The building form is a flowing, dynamic one crowned with a punctured continuous parasol which a certain lightness to the structure through its large cantilevers.
This canopy also serves both as a shading and a protective rain cover to the building. This geometry is contrasted by the solid auditorium block with its lit delicate filigree screen.
The campus is kept particularly low slung with the corridors and the interbuilding spaces providing magnificent vistas of the green surroundings.
The column grid, especially in the corridors, is pulled out to offer unbridled views of the landscaped areas, thereby blurring the lines between built form and Nature.
The built form enables maximum daylight and natural ventilation into all habitable spaces.
Materials of Construction :
The material language chosen for the campus is plastered and painted surfaces interspersed with sandstone cladding.
A Harpee green sandstone floor interspersed with Jaisalmer motifs is used in the corridors, while the classrooms are carpeted to suit acoustic needs.
Curtain Walling is also used in certain areas with reflective glass to give a “Corporate feel” to the building.
Project : A House of Small Talks
Location : Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Project cost : Rs. 1.93 Cr
Site Area : 6041.75 sq. Ft.
Built Area : 3844 sq.Ft.
Initiation of Project : March 2016
Completion of project: Sept 2017
A House of Small Talks
Description of the project:
On account of rapid urbanization and gentrification of modern Indian cities, construction and design typologies of houses have become more and more formulaic based on the locally prevailing trends and thus losing their connection with the Neighbour and the Nature.
A house of small talks located in a crowded residential neighborhood of Coimbatore creates a dialogue between the house & its inhabitants, the house & its immediate context in terms of what is built and what is un-built.
The house is set back from the street providing breathing landscape in a congested street making the design perceivable at a glance. Each function of the house were identified as individual volumes and then introduced to a game of twisting, stacking and interlocking creating curious spaces and angles merging to a point where the inside meets the outside.
Materials of construction Details:
A 16ft high charred wood free standing wall forms a backdrop around which the living room and stairs are phrased spilling conterminous volumes into each other. Skylights over spaces provide a ever changing movement of light through the day rendering different moods and experiences.
Natural wood, charred wood, exposed concrete ceiling with dark rustic tones are balanced by plain white walls and green spurs of plants.
Special Features:
The spaces formed due to uneven angles lets the inhabitants discover the use of same space differently every time making strong complex equations between all the components encapsulating the art of living.
The twisting of the voluminous living room block creates a courtyard around which the rest of the block are pivoted, though eccentric the courtyard visually binds all the spaces together and hence rightly becomes the house of the deity.( Pooja room).
An amalgamation of forms, volumes, light, landscape and in-surging territories creates an ambience to discover and experience as we go past time from one day to the next.
