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Crafted articulations
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Suprio Bhattacharjee Photos
Vir.Mueller architects Andre J. Fanthome
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With an intention to engage with the directions and processes that younger practices are developing in India, we take a close look at two projects—in Jaipur and Delhi, by the Delhi-based Vir.Mueller architects. Both the projects developed with a grounded response to the region’s climate as well as a proficiency in material use offers an understanding of how practices in India are newly investing in a continuity of building and craft processes
August 2012
Extreme left: The eastern and western faces are solid for the most part —dry-clad in locally available Dholpur sandstone left: View of entrance lobby
Delhi has long been an epicentre for the development of architecture within the Indian sub-continent—historically as well as in more recent times. This has resulted in the city’s architecture as often being (unfairly so) seen as representative of architectural development within the nation as a whole. The city’s relatively unbroken history as an imperialist capital as well its stature as the political centre for an independent India meant that its architecture has shaped uniquely over the centuries—and in many parts of the new city—an urban experience and expansive spatiality is offered that its inhabitants cherish as uniquely theirs—the subsequent urban issues and social consequences notwithstanding. In recent times, a generation of young architects has made the city their base—fanning out across the north of the country with solid works that set an agenda for an architecture with compelling insights into (and counterpoints to) the state of contemporary urban society—offering moments of respite from the increasing banality of an aspiration-driven contemporary building culture. Vir.Mueller, led by partners Pankaj Vir Gupta and Christine Mueller, is a welcome addition to this (handful of, but) growing troupe of small to medium-sized craft practices—to use a term devised by critic Kenneth Frampton. Their work draws from 38
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1 A rhythmic a-periodic pattern of remarkably slender angled stone louvers marches nimbly across each floor, forming a delicate screen through which light filters through alluringly at night
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Louvers vertically set in a dense and ordered fashion relieve the solid massing
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fact box wolkem office building, udaipur, india
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Client wolkem india limited
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Design Architects vir.mueller architects Principal Architects
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christine mueller pankaj vir gupta
the pervasive architecture of the region’s historic legacy—wellpreserved, celebrated and immutably rooted in its setting—and offers an insight into the role of the architect in contemporary India in the continuity of building and craft traditions and practices. Formed over the last decade, the office is currently in the process of realising larger and more complex works. This essay focuses on two recent projects that have given the practice a sense of identity and increasing (worldwide) acclaim; an office building completed in the outskirts of Udaipur, Rajasthan and a residence in Delhi’s Defence Colony—each project is built upon a firm base of strategic responses to the region’s extreme climatic conditions and a proficiency in material use. The office building, for Wolkem India, is the practice’s first large40
scale work. Situated near Udaipur, the site, in an industrial periurban zone aligns itself perfectly to the cardinal directions. The building follows this boundary condition dutifully, and achieves a design that is a case study in climate-consciousness and energyefficiency in a very direct, instinctive manner, far removed from the overdose of numerical statistics offered for the most indifferent and mundane ‘green buildings’ —a pertinent (and thorny) issue that is consuming the country’s contemporary building culture with its untapped and overlooked resources of historic, as well as native, building knowledge. A four-storey high L-shaped volume is configured along the east and the south, with a single storey boardroom volume along the north that defines an internal courtyard. The eastern and western faces are solid for the most part —dry-clad in locally available
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Design Team harsh vardhan jain saurabh jain sarah gill neil patel
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Structural & Plumbing Chandresh Bapna Mechanical pankaj dharkar associates Electrical harshad jhaveri associates Total Covered Area 3716 m2 Year of completion 2010
1 Entrance lobby
9 Open office
17 Games room
2 Service entry
10 Meeting room
18 Conference room
3 Lift lobby/ foyer
11 Record room
4 Stair
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Dholpur sandstone on infill brick cavity-walls to achieve high insulation and thermal mass; and relieved in some places with louvers vertically set in a dense, ordered fashion. The main access road is on the east of the site. A ramp leads to a full-height glazed portico within the monumental east entrance facade - deeply recessed to achieve maximum shade from latemorning sunshine. The only ‘classical’ gesture in the overall scheme at odds with the overall scheme—one can almost imagine this facade to be an outcome of a discussion by the architects with members of the board wherein the seated, suited gentlemen, with an air of matter-of-factness, insist on an ‘imposing’ building with a ‘grand staircase’. The clever, almost subversive insertion of an angled slot to bring in light from the north thus strikes one as humorous. The facade’s meeting with the ground plane is less than satisfactory—the heavy-handed (heavy-hearted?) detailing and the disconcerting meeting of various stone surfaces and levels is only a momentary let-down though and is best left at the door (quite literally). In marked contrast to the entrance facade, the building’s south facade is the project’s masterstroke; with a skill that can be seen as representative of the architects’ evolving craft-oriented sensibilities. A rhythmic a-periodic pattern of remarkably slender angled stone louvers marches nimbly across each floor, casting a lively play of shadows during the day, and forming a delicate screen through which light from within filters through alluringly at night. Cutting out direct solar insolation from the harshest western sun, the office spaces within receive ample natural 42
light, through deeply recessed full height insulated glazing. The resultant verandah forms an important interstitial space for users and a thermal buffer from the harsh arid climate. The filigree nature of the facade is broken by the asymmetrical insertion of vertical towers indicating the circulation spines—one transparent and the other opaque—to offer a counterpoint to the horizontality of the scheme. The grand scale of the ponderous entrance facade is suitably broken down and humanised. The absence of a raised plinth and the easy and effortless meeting of the porous building mass with the outdoor paving increase the sense of immediacy with the outdoors—ironically though this is the parking area. The building’s north faces are large expanses of recessed clear insulated glazing without the protective stone screens—offering ample natural light with access to balconies and verandahs from every space. The inner workings of the company are made visible and laid bare from the garden and lawns beyond the northern edge of the site. The odd nature of the raised entry becomes evident with a storey-height plinth along the eastern wing that steps down to the garden. The internal spaces are consistent with the expectations built up from the open and transparent nature of the facades—with generous views across circulation spaces and the adept handling of materials—local sandstone and granite flooring, exposed concrete and the omnipresent stone screens against a background of white plastered walls and bold red furniture elements in the public spaces. The three-storey high entrance foyer with its freestanding elevator shaft and bridges to the office wings is the
• Louvers vertically set in a dense and ordered fashion relieve the solid massing
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fact box Defence colony residence, new delhi, india Client saran and puneet dhupia Design Architects vir.mueller architects Principal Architects
christine mueller pankaj vir gupta Project Team sarah gill harsh vardhan jain saurabh jain kai pedersen hillary collins helena westerlind everett hollander Structural Engineering Himanshu parikh Contractor macro constructions (Mr subhash chakravarty)
Brick screen - balcony partial elevation (typ.)
Total Covered Area 1022 m2 Number of floors 4 storeys Year of completion 2011
230 230 230 165
Construction Duration Two years
brick screen - balcony course 5,6 and 7 (typ.)
235 230 230 230 230 230 Cut brick to match and support above and below bricks (typ.)
brick screen - balcony course 3 (typ.)
Step stone 8mm to flush base plate with f.f.e of balcony brick screen - balcony course 8 (typ.)
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• spatial highlight, connecting the executive wing on the north-east with the open office spaces in the southern wing. The building offers ample opportunities for occupants to enjoy views to the outside and the distant mountains—from their workstations and as they scurry from one room to another or between floors. This is a successful initial work from an emerging practice. Few grouses relate to the building’s execution - the distracting coping lines between the dry-cladding and the RCC beams; and the corner projections along the balconies where the stone screen turns rather clumsily as it negotiates different heights. The counter argument could be of an expression of the structure’s underlying raw and unyielding nature—an argument that would favour those seeing this work as an extension of Raj Rewal’s brutalist regional works. On the upside, outflow from the building’s sewage treatment is used to cultivate a large walled garden, and treated rainwater is used for flushing. The intelligent use of large expanses of clear glass sheathed by a screen or with overhangs sends a clear message against the obsessive (and easy) use of a veneer of tinted glass (‘green’ or otherwise—even in extreme climates) to wrap buildings that seems to be the norm in corporate and commercial architecture; which other than causing glare and increasing the effect of urban heat islands also causes a disconcerting chromatic experience for occupants making one feel as if one is perpetually looking out through sunglasses. The higher thermal mass achieved through this design ensures lower indoor temperatures thus reducing cooling loads. The lawn though incongruous to the climate is often a desired element for clients—here it offers a ‘backdrop’ to the large meeting room at the north. Exemplary in its maze-like spatial articulation and masterful in the handling of material, the more recent residence in Delhi’s upmarket Defence Colony is a lyrical essay in brick. The work 46
assumes a sense of materiality that strikes a different chord from a more recent outing in adventurous brick-building Delhi has witnessed—the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre by Anagram Architects (another young practice). An exuberant virtuoso performance of twirling brickwork on one facade heralded this building as an instant contemporary classic. Where the Anagram building revels in the joyful delight of playful invention, the Defence Colony residence, on the contrary, uses brick in an understated and restrained manner—assuming the quiet assurance of an accomplished performer. The material’s inherent weight is brought into question—as it drifts over the contours of the street facade in a gauze-like veil—an active participant in shaping the engagement with the city and not a sombre passive spectator—offering changing patterns of shade that cast a muted spray of sunlight into the internal spaces. While admirers of the work of the late southern master Laurie Baker would be enthralled by this contemporary (though a tad bit reticent) northern counterpart—what is missing in the lack of an inventive bravura is replaced by a disposition towards geometric order and formal composition—that can be seen as a derivative of contextual historic forces. The work comes close to achieving a sense of ‘brick-ness’ that would please those who revere the seminal works of the late Swedish master Sigurd Lewerentz—in the visual vibration and wholeness of detailing —like the full bricks that cross each other at angles at the corner of each course in the jharokhas. The thin cantilevering reinforced concrete slabs and large openings that rhythmically break the street facade belie the load-bearing nature of the brick walls. The integrity of the brick construction is evidenced in the brick ‘handrail’ of the jharokhas —where each block is upturned such that the ‘frog’ points downward, allowing
• Richard Hamilton, “Man, Machine & Motion”, 1955. Thematic exhibition, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; and ICA, London. Courtesy of the estate of Richard Hamilton
for the flat face to come in contact with the body. Once inside, one observes that more walls could have been left un-plastered within rooms [client insistence?], and the marble and granite used in the internal finishes strike one as a concession to the client’s obvious demands for a ‘posh’ house in deference to the earthy everyday nature of brick. The residence, actually two houses stacked on top of each other with independent street entrances and linked by a breathtaking common stairwell at the rear, presents itself as quite a large mass, higher and larger than its neighbours. But the articulation of volumes, surfaces, opacities and porosities dilute this sense and successfully manages to scale the building down. It is not immediately clear to the passer-by how many floors the house is composed of, what with the staggered floor-lines eroding away at the seams as the building’s scale melds into its urban environs. The irregular rhythm of the traditionally-inspired ‘jharokhas’ [bay windows or oriels] accentuate the building’s narrow vertical profile—at the same time acting as a device for self-shading. The calibrated brick construction of the screens ensures that the southern exposures are mostly shaded to ward off the harsh afternoon sun. The geometric disposition of the brick ‘jaali’ itself makes strong references to the order of the city’s rich architectural heritage. The bow to traditional models and historic typologies continues with the layered articulation of emphasized floor lines along the street facade—the textured brickwork almost a substitute for coursed bas-relief on historic stone surfaces. Besides of course, the thermal mass of a building built entirely and massively out of brick is beyond doubt. The project also continues the renewal of exposed brickwork within the city’s building culture—recent additions being the cited Documentation Centre and the headquarters/workshop building for fashion designer
Tarun Tahiliani. An important aspect of the house is the manner in which it connects to its locale through its porous facade—marking a renewed effort to engage with the street. Younger generations of the family will enjoy calling out to [and then hiding from] friends on the street and the bewildered milkman—while older generations will enjoy casual conversations with neighbours out on a stroll and even inviting them in for chai. The challenge is whether the uptight nature of this residential locale will yield to the open nature of the house. Vir.Mueller is a welcome addition to the emerging group of young Delhi-based practices such as [the aforementioned] Anagram Architecture, Morphogenesis, S.P.A. Design and Romi Khosla Design Studio (led with renewed vigour by the inclusion of son, Martand Khosla) in shaping unique visions for the city and the region. These two compelling works make a clear stand against the adoption of failed imported models and the blind use of contemporary building materials in an unthinking and rapidly developing building culture where off-the-shelf consumption has obliterated the search [and use] of pervasive native techniques and materials. One witnesses a renewed interest in the nature of craft, in the joy of making an architecture that bears the ‘irregular’ mark of the hand, with an instinctive response to concerns of context and the environment. What needs to be seen is how a craft practice such as Vir.Mueller negotiates the complexities of large commissions while staying true to their remarkable efforts at rejuvenating underrated or forgotten traditions and models. — Suprio Bhattacharjee Architect
Richard Hamilton, “Man, Machine & Motion”, 1955. Thematic exhibition, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; and ICA, London. Courtesy of the estate of Richard Hamilton
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