Residence Facility at IIT Bombay
Educational Architecture I Mumbai, Maharashtra
Client IITB-AA
Area 37,000 Sq. M
Team Shimul Javeri Kadri, Sarika Shetty, Sapna Rohra, Nilay Shah
Production support Saivi Shah, Ahanta Ganti, Riddhi Shah, Tanvi Namjoshi, Disha Kothari
The spaces thrive amidst dense canopies of trees to constantly bring in a “Sense of Sanctuary” to its inhabitants . The beautiful microclimate of this wooded site allows this opportunity.
Design brief:
We were invited to design a mixed-gender hostel for 1200 students at the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) campus as a part of an invited competition held by the IITB-AA (Alumni body).
The site is located at the eastern edge of the campus with the main sports ground towards the north and Powai lake towards the south. The site is a densely wooded piece of land and was previously used as a boys hostel (H8 - Woodlands) which was built in the 1960s for about 200 students. The new student residence facility at IIT Bombay is proposed to increase the capacity of H8 and include students from hostel H7- Lady of the lake, and envisage an additional girls hostel, all of min 360 students.
Design approach: Hostel life is about nurturing relationships that last a lifetime. The IIT Bombay hostel architectural design attempts at interconnected wings woven around existing trees to enjoy birdsongs and banter from the playing courts. Living amongst the trees provides the much needed break and helps students connect back with nature, the interstitial spaces allow for chance encounters that could lead to wonderful memories and create bonds amongst fellow residents.
The Trees on-site and the nostalgia of the existing block became the guiding factors for the design. The plinth is wrapped around the trees maintaining a sense of sanctuary.
The entire ground floor is stilted to maintain visual connections from the road to the lake and is interspersed with common amenities and possibilities of chance encounters. The hostel mess and 1st level plaza interact with each other via the skylights left around tree courts. These bring in natural light into the mess and create different possibilities for seating and interacting.
Building visual connections through nature
The wings wrapped around the plaza along with the floating glass boxes and the tree canopies above, provide an open to sky space with a familiar scale and sense of security. This central plaza and communal space visually interconnects with the play courts to the west on the ground level- activating students interaction.
The plaza is a pivotal open to sky communal space and also acts as a thoroughfare for students to access their respective wings- these wings identified as Woodlands, Lady of Lake and Raintree rise upto levels 7, 6, 5 respecting the tree canopies and being well within them- a sense of sanctuary is maintained by this gesture, embracing in the best views of the lake and dense trees.
