Office for SAHRC
Project: Office for SAHRC
Architect: Anagram Architects
Brickwork contractor: SK Builders
Brick: FPS Brick Class Designation 75: Burnt Clay Bricks
A small office with limited resources, the SAHRDC also runs an internship programme attracting students and scholars from universities in India and abroad. It required an office to be made on a 50 sqm plot, keeping in mind the spatial efficiency and cost effective construction.
The site is bounded by a busy street corner with essentially pedestrian traffic. As the site is not very large, the acoustic and visual intrusion of the street activity into work spaces was a key concern.
The method of construction adopted had to optimise the space available on site and a modest budget.
The orientation of the site is such that the longer 10m side is exposed to direct sun throughout the day. Reducing the resulting solar thermal gain was an important design generator.
Although some fortification against the street was required, it was crucial for the façade ‘’converse’’ with the external activity. The external wall is conceived as an animated, dynamic skin reflecting the bustle of the street and activating what would otherwise have been a mundane façade with minimal fenestrations. The porosity of the wall maintains a degree of privacy while playfully engaging with the street corner.
Efficient Space utilisation is achieved by creating a single consolidated volume on each floor to be flexibly partitioned as per the client’s requirements. This volume is serviced by a flanking buffer bay of a single flight cantilevered staircase and a toilet stack. Costs were minimised by using exposed brick construction and by creating a beamless soffit at every floor. In order to create a beamless soffit without increasing the thickness of the slab, a gently vaulting roof was designed. Lateral inverted beams were introduced and flooring laid onto an infill so that each floor plate was thermally and acoustically insulated eliminating the need for a false ceiling.
This buffer bay also acts like a breathing thermal barrier along the sun facing side. By situating the staircase and toilet stack in this bay, the internal workspaces are protected. The porosity of the wall ensures that the buffer bay is well ventilated and yet shaded so as to reduce the amount of heat transmitted to the workspaces. A single repeating brick module creates a visually complex pattern in the manner of traditional South Asian brise soleils.
A six brick module is laid in staggered courses that create twirling vertical stacks and an undulating surface. The construction of the screen wall was a result of a five-week process of learning and un-learning masonry techniques on site. From verification of plumbness to the structural bonding of the brick courses, methods of brick laying were devised through a deep on-site collaboration between the masons and the architects.
Technical Information
Site Area: 50 sqm.
Built-up Area: 172 sqm
Cost of Construction: € 32000 (at time of construction)
Thsi project was awarded the Best Worldwide Brick Award at the 2008 Brick Awards. Despite this category producing some outstanding buildings the Judges were unanimous that this amazing example of sub-tropical patterned brickwork should take the prize. The pattern was devised by a close collaboration between the Architects and the Contractors. It is based on a six brick module laid in staggered courses to create the vertical stacks and undulating surface. Imagination, ingenuity and precision combine to produce an outstanding result.