Name & Location: Campus for National Assessment & Accreditation Council, Bangalore

Cost of Project (INR): Rs. 14 Crores

Built-up area: 10,000 Sq.meter
(In case of Public Building minimum built-up area should be 1000 sq. meter)

Description of Project:

The project brief for the NAAC Campus in the Bangalore University Campus called for multiple building blocks to house different programs – library, offices, conference facilities, guest rooms and staff housing.

The 5 acre site has a curving road on the west – the design mimics this sweep in a corridor, termed the spine, which becomes the connecting tissue for the various components of the program. While the library, offices and conference facilities are organized parallel to the spine, the guest rooms and staff housing are elevated on stilts at a height of 5 meters and project perpendicular to the spine. The elevated bars allow for the landscape to extend under these parts of the building – thus restricting the extent of ground footprint.

The internal organization is an intensification of the open office concept – spaces are organized within visual reach of each other, even though they might be separated by voids to glazing functionality. The main space of the library is a 15m tall volume with floating island-like functional platforms – flooded with natural light from skylights in the roof and the end polycarbonate skin, the library becomes the terminal focus of the sweeping form. The Director’s office occupies a prime visual position – standing at the corner window, one can enjoy the panoramic view of the entire library space.

Materials of Construction Details:

The structure is mostly based on a large span conventional column–beam concept. The largest spans (typically at the Library end) are framed in structural steel with polycarbonate and galvalume sheet skin.

Infill walls are concrete masonry blocks with plaster and paint. Window openings are filled with Aluminum framework and glazing. The extensive use of skylights ensures that there is adequate natural light throughout the day – reducing the need for artificial lighting to a bare minimum, mostly only needed under extremely cloudy circumstances. The sweeping curve of the spine is designed on the First Floor with a double skin – the outer skin is a perforated metal screen and the inner one is an aluminum framed glazing. A passage in between the two layers allows for maintenance of the same.

Special Features:

The architectural concept was to bring together the different programs rather than separate them physically and then connect them by external paths. The single “long – sweeping” block housing these various “disparate” programs was conceptualized as a single continuum to enable increased interactions, facilitate closer communication and intensify chance meetings.

The programs organized in a seamless ribbed curve with natural light, ventilation and open interiors create varying shadow patterns. This dynamic aesthetic that changes with ambient conditions offers a captivating spectacle.

End cantilevers and plan staggers were used as a strategy to resolve the end conditions of the buildings. Inclined ends make the terminations more dynamic & visually extend the building into the space beyond.

The section was used as a tool to ensure functional separation – different programs were conceived at different levels and “joined” along a spine with stairs and ramps. The building becomes a hybrid container of multiple programs which are connected visually but retain functional separation. For example, the library is separated from the offices by a “cut” or a “void” which is crossed by a bridge connector – entry and exit need to be controlled only at this bridge, but the library remains visually open from within the offices.

The stairs are articulated in the central atrium; a place of dynamic perception; with different viewpoints of the various levels unfolding along the climb.

The exterior and interior are patterned by a series of lines (through the metal louvers, storage shutters etc.) that emphasize horizontality.