Kanchenjunga Apartments
• 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
(good light and ventilation). 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 lines of
defense against the elements.
But in an apartment building, Charles Correa has used smaller
displacements of level which 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.
Terraced green balconies inspired from verandahs
Urban Forest by Koichi Takada
Curves wrapping the facade makes it a vertical urban forest
by having a vegetation on each curve. Its overall form is
designed to maximize natural light and promote cross-
ventilation, while its greenery will provide extra insulation
too.
Alternate curved facades make up the balconies
and provide shade to the lower floors
Urban Forest achieves 300 percent site cover with living greenery,
featuring 1,000 plus trees and more than 20,000 plants selected
from 259 native species. The columns are also a nod to the local architectural tradition of the Queenslander, a house that is raised up on a
platform and surrounded by a shaded verandah. This building style was developed to suit the climate of high
temperatures and torrential downpour, providing shady outdoor spaces while minimizing the risk of flooding.
Malhar Terraces
by Good Earth
Vasant Vihar Residence / Vir.Mueller architects
This project incorporates a hybrid structural system - load
bearing brick masonry walls wrap the envelope on three sides,
while a reinforced concrete frame system anchors the core.
The project juxtaposes an open core concrete frame "tent",
within a perimeter mass of brick "caves".
Hence, the thicker brick walls with controlled apertures enclose
the more private bedroom and bathrooms, while the porous
frame, infilled with insulated glazing, enables the south-facing
living and dining areas to be illuminated by natural light all day.
vir.mueller architects worked with the brick masons on site to
create subtle shifts and offsets in the facade walls, enabling a
textured surface to emerge from the brick structure itself.
The deep window recesses in the elevation are highlighted by
staggering the bricks in the adjacent walls; conversely, the
bathroom windows are veiled in a brick screen, exaggerating
the sculptural potential of the material on the facade.
As the brick wraps from the east facing front facade to the
south facing side, the load bearing walls transition to reveal the
glass clad concrete frame.
The entire south facade faces a stepped garden, descending
from the ground floor to the basement.
Apartment in Binh Thanh /
Sanuki Daisuke architects
Based on the study on the ‘cross-sectional’ perspective, a
large open courtyard is placed in the middle of the
building and a U-shaped solid mass is created by two
‘towers’ with the connection at the ground floor.
Furthermore, a void for connecting the garden-space on
ground floor to the open-area courtyard has been created.
In addition, the “Lanai (=semi-outdoor space)” was
prepared for each room, exposed to the courtyard. These
outside spaces (open-area courtyard, garden space, and
Lanai) are organically connected each other making use
of the “fresh” air-circulation and deep day lighting
penetration for whole of the building. A lot of outside
space enhances occupants’ living style with a deep
connection to the outdoor found in tropical areas.
The terracotta screen block is very popular in Vietnam.
different patterns of blocks have been combined, creating
a characteristic Façade and outside space in the
courtyard, which makes use of natural ventilation,
passive cooling by shading, while simultaneously
enhancing occupant security.
Coral Reef | Vincent Callebaut Architecture
Penda's Residential
Tower in Tel Aviv
Pre-fabricated CLT panels will
be assembled off-site and craned
into place once the foundation
and base core is set. This
construction method will allow Penda Designs Modular
the building to be built quicker, Timber Tower
quiter and with reduced waste
than traditional construction
techniques. Minor concrete and
steel-elements will support the
CLT panels as necessary, but
even those pieces have been
designed with the building’s life
cycle in mind.
