Salient Feature of the Project

Name & Location: TATA DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA
Cost of Project (INR):
Built-up area: 5500 sq. meter (Phase I)
(In case of Public Building minimum built-up area should be 1000 sq. meter)

Description of Project:

The Academy is a management training institute that provides professional education in rural areas. In keeping with its mission, the architecture builds on a traditional local vocabulary, so that those who enter the facility will instantly feel at home. The design began with a study of the regional prototype of Chettinad architecture to understand its planning, scale, detailing & materiality, which was then interpreted to suit the spatial and functional needs of the school.
The site layout picks up on the way villages are distributed across a region, with clusters from which interconnecting roads spread out.
The individual clusters grow as radiating squares and interlocking courtyards, halls sided with verandahs that open onto landscaped courtyards maintaining transparency along one axis of every space.

Materials of Construction Details:

Random rubble masonry walls

Stone columns sourced from a local quarry

Mangalore tiled roof

Woven grass mats as false ceiling

IPS, clay tiles, local stones used as flooring materials

The vocabulary of tile roofs, exposed stone walls & pillars, bright cement oxide floor, and traditional reed mats render the complex as a subtle yet striking composition of shade, light, and colour, interwoven with landscape.

Special Features:

Low cost construction

Utilisation of local construction materials and techniques

Flexible planning to allow for phasing of project