Salient Feature of the Project

Name & Location: IQ CITY NURSING COLLEGE, Durgapur, West Bengal
Cost of Project (INR): Rs. 8,00,00,000/-
Built-up Area: 4,173.7 sq.m.

Description of the project:

IQ City is an integrated township of 100 Acres having Housing, Educational and Commercial development. The challenge for the insertion of a 45,000 sq.ft. Nursing college in the site having development area 100Acres, was to find an architectural language that harmonizes with the surrounding that has been conceived and build over time by various architects – an unassuming architectural expression that doesn’t compromise on the spatial quality was required. The building is therefore devised as a courtyard-type, introverted planning with minimalistic facade expression. Working in this context, a language of solidity and emptiness was juxtaposed to capture the soul of healing, delicately balancing strength and fragility. 

The building is situated in the educational precinct of the ‘IQ City’ development at a striking corner plot. While the surrounding buildings curve in response to the roundabout, the project sits square and firm on ground yet subtly opening up through the scooped out lower floors. The rooms in the corner of this square building are removed to create an entrance plaza which results in effective visual connection and physical continuation of space into the courtyard. This plaza corresponds to the entrance to the Medical College building and its double height foyer in the opposite side. Also being adjacent to the grounds of the temple complex on the southern side, the plaza is thus designed as an extended public space.

A robust yet simple structural system is used that reflects the gravity and simplicity of the purpose of the building. Pockets of openness echo the hope that needs to emanate from a caregiver. The building’s robust and unassuming character is punctuated by deliberate voids. This interplay of void and solid becomes one of the key elements of the project. Planned around a central courtyard, the idea was to create a public space that flows at many levels. Ample terraces overlooking the central courtyard are created at all levels as extension of corridors. This serves the dual purpose of transforming mundane movement spaces into active stop ‘places’ for interaction and in creating a continuous connected network of gathering places not only in the horizontal plane but also vertically.

The Courtyard and Terraces maximize the use of daylight and enhance natural ventilation passively cooling the building. The orientation and placement of these voids respond to the solar angle such that a generous mix of shaded and sunny spaces are produced to be equally welcoming in summer and winter.

Material of Construction Details: 

The interior finishes imitate the simplistic approach to materiality and construction. To optimize the cost and resource, use of false ceiling is avoided. The structural system is used to create articulation in the form of coffered slab at the entrance plaza. The building is conceived in plaster and paint finish. Yellow Kota Stone is used only in the entrance plaza and courtyard emphasizing the importance of open space. The success of the project can be exemplified when its monochromatic base palette of color is used by the client on the existing buildings to create an image of the campus. 

Special Features: 

Can a space teach you how to care? 

This question transcribed into the design intent for the IQ City Nursing College building in Durgapur, West Bengal. It is essentially an institution that nurtures young people to be empathetic efficient care givers. Effective communication, cultivated over time through interaction with people from various walks of life, plays a major role in sensitizing one on the issues of others. The design focuses primarily on spaces that fosters such interaction and the exchange of ideas through communication. 

Durgapur is a Tier-II city of West Bengal. As a developing industrial township it is home to numerous privately managed colleges and universities. Minimizing the cost of construction becomes a critical issue for such investments and considerable factor in design development.