Figure 52: kanchanjunga apartment

5.1. KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENT/ CHARLES CORREA

(MUMBAI)

Charles Correa designed the Kanchanjunga Apartments. Located in Mumbai, the U.S. equivalent of New York City in terms of population and diversity, the 32 luxury apartments are located south-west of downtown in an upscale suburban setting embodying the characteristics of the upper echelon of society within the community.

The Kanchanjunga Apartments are a direct response to the present culture, the escalating urbanization, and the climatic conditions for the region. They pay homage to the vernacular architecture that once stood on the site before the development in a number of ways. More on Kanchanjunga Apartments after the break.

In Mumbai, a building has to be oriented east-west to catch prevailing sea breezes and to open up the best views of the city. Unfortunately, these are also the directions of the hot sun and the heavy monsoon rains. The old bungalows solved these problems by wrapping a protective layer of verandas around the main living areas, thus providing the occupants with two lines of defence against the elements

Correa pushed his capacity for ingenious cellular planning to the limit, as is evident from the interlock of four different apartment typologies varying from 3 to 6 bedrooms each. Smaller displacements of level were critical in this work in that they differentiated between the external earth filled terraces and the internal elevated living volumes. These subtle shifts enable Correa to effectively shield these high-rise units from the effects of both the sun and monsoon rains. This was largely achieved by providing the tower with relatively deep, garden verandas, suspended in the air.

FIGURE 52: KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENT

ORIENTATION

In Mumbai a building has to be oriented east-west to catch the prevailing seabreezes and open up the best views in the city. The Arabian Sea on one side and the harbour in the other. But these unfortunately are also the direction of the hot sun and heavy monsoon rains. The old bungalows solved these problems by wrapping a protective layer of verandahs around the main living areas, thus providing the occupants with two lines of defence against the elements. Kanchanjunga an attempt to apply these principles to a high-rise building.