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Architects: MO-OF
- Area: 10000 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Niveditaa Gupta
Text description provided by the architects. LIVING BRIDGES - Concept/Philosophy - Living Bridges is designed to move away from the typical dormitory or student hostel typology in urban settings, which fosters a regimented form of social control by the use of single-loaded corridor organizations. The challenge was to break away from the notion of stacked student housing where there is no exchange between students, owing to the tight site constraints forcing dead vertical development as a common imagination.
Program and Organization - To respond to these, a conscious design framework was introduced that facilitated opportunities for an active social and cultural life to flourish. This was done by creating Living bridges that integrate circulation and sequence different collective programs within the hostel in the horizontal voids. Placing common programs such as the study rooms, pantry, audio-visual room, gym, indoor games areas, and computer rooms on different floors adjacent to the stairs and overlooking the inner street formed by the stacked corridors, accelerated interaction of students across multiple floors making it vibrant and socially sustainable.
The other element was to establish the connection of this new hostel block with the surrounding building and playground on the existing campus site. This was achieved by extending the podium level as a double-height viewing deck that overlooked the grounds. The podium floor of the building is looked at as a 24-hour living courtyard. The student dining and kitchen have been embedded into the ground floor, which is overlooked from a few voids of the podium. As the kitchen would need high serviceability, it has been kept away from student activities in the building on the ground floor closer to the back entrance.
Special features - Breathable façades Sustainability plays a prime role in the design of the hostel; the west and east façades act as sun breakers and screen the glass windows of the student rooms. The need for a screen primarily arises with an intent to respond to climate needs and provide cross ventilation to every room. However, the design of the screen in itself becomes an expression of the school, becoming a characteristic that one sees from afar while approaching the VJTI campus by road.
Community spaces as landmarks - The south side of the building forms a welcoming entrance with an amphitheater and multiple seating areas overlooked by the suspended TV room and terraces above. The play of volumes as a solid mass and voids is designed to not only respond to the views and provide climatic responses but also become social landmarks.
