With our cities growing at an incomprehensible pace, reformative delineations negotiating our built fabric often manifest into dense, ad-hoc environments with rocketing skylines and misplaced
socio-cultural semiotics. Responding to a consequential influx, the revival of B.S. Abdur Rahman University by architectureRED presents a case of place-making that attempts to restore an institutional culture by thriving on the nitty-gritty of a radically transformed, peripheral Chennai.

 ‘With just 2% of the global land area and 17% of the world’s population’, there is immense pressure on India’s urban land. Imagining a radical transformation of the fringes within same extents of land poses layers of complexities in the opportunities it introduces. Inspired by the Collage City by Colin Rowe, the architecture of three new Faculties and a Students Activity Center at B.S. Abdur Rahman University dwells on an existing context in a way that aspires to contribute to as well as enhance the built environment through design.

The analogy to a city is pivotal owing to similar challenges of a developmental growth- the case of verticality and reinterpreting figure-ground relationships in which, “The juxtaposition and layering of smaller designs into a whole, rather than a totalitarian, fresh slate approach, would allow for the city to be free of the unchangeable finality of a post-modern composition- lacking prescription, shifted contexts, recycled meanings, and metamorphoses.”

Campus Axis: The entry into the campus is characterized by a monumental axis that terminates at the existing clock tower. This axis is intersected by the street that links all the departments within the campus.

Building-Street Relationship: The intersection of the two streets culminates in a potential campus node.

Place-making: The location of the sites on the Campus present the opportunity to add character to the campus streets through a usable open space adjacent to the buildings.

Distinct Address: There is an opportunity to create a distinct address for every proposed building by establishing a relationship between the street edge and the threshold.

The economics of building today brings with it complexities as dualities. Departing from a conventionally prescribed abstraction, Master Planning of the Campus commits to the cultivation of a ‘place’, where the imageability of a seemingly overbearing architecture is surmounted by the porosity of the skin and the affability with which the ground transitions from the street outside to a ‘vertical street’ inside.

Department of Aeronautics: Positioned at the culmination point of a cardinal axis, the site intersects a prominent street that leads to the residential blocks on campus.

Department of Aeronautics: A raised platform marks the threshold, invigorating the interaction from the street outside to a plaza inside.

Department of Aeronautics: Diffusing thresholds, the stairway emerges from the landscape.

School of Life Sciences: Situated at the termination of one of the cardinal axes, abutting an outdoor spill-out, the tall structure is a compelling, bold anchor point.

School of Life Sciences: Articulation of the fire stairway to serve as a spill out space within the building as a conscious effort to enliven the campus life within the building.

School of Life Sciences: The threshold extends into the adjoining street stimulating all three sides of the tightly seated building.

School of Architecture: A gallery opens into the adjoining street, making for a seamless transition.

Some instances terminate in a sunken courtyard providing respite in the middle of a busy spire and in some places, dissipated voids culminate into intensely articulated congregational spaces.  A restraint in massing is visible in pockets of The Department of Aeronautics to stimulate pedestrian movement along adjoining streets, “leading to different volumes being created to consciously try and control the notion of being inside a vertical building, with the help of large spill out spaces internally.”

Department of Aeronautics: An elevated triple height break out space adjoining the street.

Department of Aeronautics: A sunken central courtyard ties all the programmatic spaces together.

School of Life Sciences: A balconied Northern front.

School of Life Sciences: The ramp tucks into the building setback, merging with an extended plinth adjoining the street.

School of Architecture: The central space overlooking a ‘vertical street’ along the Eastern front.

Department of Aeronautics: Daylight washes the atrium looking up into open skies.

Additionally, a critical factor which governs a lot of the preliminary design stage is the pattern of occupancy. The architecture indulges in meticulous spatial planning with institutional buildings getting occupied much before completion. Interconnected volumes, generous but controlled fenestration and a comprehensible movement pattern, induce a sense of familiarity with much ease amid the new ensemble of spaces.

Department of Aeronautics: Relationship to the existing cardinal axis.

Department of Aeronautics: The site presents the opportunity to create active plaza.

Department of Aeronautics: Extending the streetscape.

Department of Aeronautics: Connecting masses above ground, maintaining free flow of movement beneath.

Department of Aeronautics: A striking central plaza cuts through the core of the massing.

Department of Aeronautics: A conceptualization of the street integrating into the building.

School of Architecture: Diagram of the continuous street running across the length of the building, connecting to the Student Activity Center.

School of Architecture: A conceptual section of the internal staggering of decks and massing.

School of Architecture: A conceptualization of a the horizontal and vertical dynamics through the building.

School of Architecture [right] and Student Activity Center [left]: The buildings are oriented so as to respond to encourage spillover activities into the adjoining surroundings.

In the absence of a campus culture, the architecture of the individual Faculties is articulated with the intent to inculcate a social culture which extends to the entire campus. Acting as a spatial frame for processes that takes place within, materiality is purposed to mark transitions. Within confines of a restricted ground cover, the new augmented volumes interlock into an existing or a projected mass. In the Department of Life Sciences, for instance, the proposed module conjoins with the existing module in a way that the combined roof area becomes a common ground for interaction in light of the limited available resources.

School of Life Sciences: Using a defined module as an extension of the mass.

School of Life Sciences: Diagramming massing and alignment.

School of Life Sciences: The idea was to look at the roof as the ground for interaction.

The contemporary architecture of educational institutions has the potential to positively influence a cultural pedagogy of a school by the purposeful creation of largely flexible, mobile and diverse learning environments.  A campus is essentially composed of two distinct spaces – the programmed and the incidental. Today, design has consciously replaced complex, closed systems of corridors, with a central multi-use space of an open spatial configuration- diffusing thresholds and integrating landscapes. The development of a university campus is as much about creating a small scale community as it is about developing a functional environment to work, play and rest in.

Master Plan Conceptual Diagram.

Department of Aeronautics: Gathering spaces tucked into landscapes.

Department of Aeronautics: Gathering spaces tucked into landscapes.

In this pursuit of a responsive environment, it is at the human scale that one finds nuances in the design which propel reactions- in the wedged pockets along the corridors of The Department of Aeronautics, the staggering of terraces of the School of Architecture and the cascading staircase defining the distinct corner of the Department of Life Sciences. The holistic vision is to deinstitutionalise the formal, frontal forms (teacher-oriented) of tuition by linking pedagogical and behavioural science with architectural design.

View of the School of Sciences.

School of Architecture: The staggered decks offer light and transparency, connecting all floors at once.

Amidst a scenario of changing densities, education systems and dynamics of construction, the renewed architecture of B.S. Abdur Rahman University is a gesture that seeks to address the innate inhibitions associated with myopic delineations of city limits, through a demonstrated design approach to improve, if not solve urban problems. ♦

Information:

Client: B.S. Abdur Rahman University
Location: Vandalur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Total Site Area: 61 acres
Architects: architectureRED, Chennai

Department of Aeronautics
Site Area: 66,170 square feet.
Built up Area: 1,50,000 square feet.
Height: 30 meters
Year of Completion: 2015

School of Life Sciences
Site Area: 14,000 square feet.
Built up Area: 70,000 square feet.
Height: 30 meters
Year of Completion: 2014

School of Architecture
Site Area: 36,650 square feet.
Built up Area: 1,00,000 square feet.
Height: 30 meters
Status: Ongoing

Images & Drawings Credits:
Photographs: Courtesy architectureRED
Feature Image: Courtesy Matter.
Drawings: architectureRED, Chennai

Text: Hrushita Davey

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