Salient features of the project: Art & Innovation Hub at Agastya Intemational Foundation — Andhra Pradesh

Description of project:

The Art and Innovation hub project has been envisioned with a clear understanding that all sites have stories. So if we designers understand the language of the land, we would be able to design
•sustainably •meaningfully •economically •contextually to the cultural
determinants of the community around and finally have a lighter footprint.

So the questions in our mind weret how do we capture the essence of the strong character of this beautiful site? Will our interaction make or break the landscape?

What we ultimately decided was to build with the lay of the land and we tucked our architectural response into the hill side.

We opened the art and innovation hub to the magnificent view while pulling our spaces into the hills bosom.

To the cut and fill that became the process of integrating our structure to the slopes we added the dimension of covering all our buildings under the sweep of the earth, which eventually was covered with greenery, merging the structure to the surrounding landscape.

“The project explores the possibilities of the built form interacting with the land harmoniously.”

Materials of construction details:

he built form is predominantly a column and beam structure is kept in grey tone, with exposed concrete columns and ceiling, Local stone retaining wall, cement flooring and structural steel members painted grey.

The uniform colour scheme creates a perfect background, an open canvas to display art and sculptures done by the kids that brings
colour and texture into the interiors. The shale rock available in the terrain is used in combination with the random rubble masonry for the exterior retaining walls and outdoor flooring along with precast panels with leaf imprints.

“The shale rock extends in to the interior for art works blurring lines between inside and outside”.

Special Features:

The valley on both sides of the structure were connected to a series of water holding ponds that not only harvested rain water, but also
recharged the natural aquifer of the land and enhancing the microclimate of the site.

Structural steel members are used for extensions beyond the built form as eyelids, protecting the semi outdoor spaces form rain and sun,
they also allow installation of art works and cast interesting play of light and shadow.

Structural elements are exploited beyond its functionality and seem as art works spread in the interior. The programme is sensitively designed to cater the needs of the rural children and teachers and infuse the idea of large meaning of
sustainability through place based learning.

“The structure seems carved from earth with each space creatively sculpted to suit the requirement along the lay of the land”.