KOCHI REFINERY HEADQUARTERS
Kochi, Kerala, India
KOCHI REFINERY HEADQUARTERS
Kochi, Kerala, India
This corporate headquarters is located along the Kerala backwaters near Kochi, where a river turns sharply affording views up and down its edges, lined with coconut trees and thick forest cover.
Both, the needs of the client and the architect’s experimental interests in space and volume anticipated the form, spatial and functional nature of the building. The design problem was to seek a holistic solution integrating the structural system, mechanical system and functional program into a system of “fixed” and “flexible” parts. Technologies were drawn from the site conditions and its vernacular context. Traditionally horizontal wood jaalis are employed to temper light and air, which is reflected in the employment of horizontal aluminum louvers in this work.
Deep piles with broad caps provide a resting-place for the columns, which ring the structure around its exterior edges, connecting into a reinforced concrete vertical shaft housing vertical services. The system allows the structure to absorb lateral forces in the event of an earthquake.
It was essential that the headquarters of this energy enterprise be built around the concept of energy efficiency. The building is a glass cylinder, set inside a shading jaali tube, cutting down heat, while illuminating the interiors and saving energy. The strong building envelope allowed for space shaping within its geometric volume. The ground level structural glass walls are set back into the shade of the upper levels allowing the ground floor to act as one continuous open space flowing up through an atrium, while flowing out the ground level café and entrance lobby into the horizontal natural vistas.
The building becomes a prototype for multi-stored offices in tropical climates. In its fabric live many ideas and concepts about sustainability that found prominence in later works that are labeled as “Green Buildings!”
LocationKochi, Kerala, India
Built Up Area4,000 Square Meters
Site Area1.62 Acres
Completion2002
Client
Kochi Refineries Limited
Prime Contractor
Voltas International Ltd.
Services
Structural Design : IIT Madras
Landscape Design : CCBA Designs, Pune
MEP Design : Design Bureau, Mumbai
Interior Design : CCBA Designs, Pune
Construction Management : Kitco Ltd.
Photos
Ramprasad Akkisetti and Deepak Kaw
Design Team
Prof. Christopher Benninger, Santhosh M.P, Daraius Choksi and Rahul Sathe
Awards
2004 IA&B Awards
Designing Corporate Cultures for Corporate Building