Suzlon - One Earth - Prof. Christopher Benninger

7/27/2019 Suzlon - One Earth - Prof. Christopher Benninger

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ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People January 201124

DESIGN THOUGHT

SUZLON ONE EARTHBetween the Eternal and the TransformationalChristopher Benninger

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January 2011 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 25

An exemplary model

of tradition and modernity

designed with adaptability

and balance.

Suzlon One Earth is the corpo-

rate headquarters o Suzlon

Wind Energy Systems. The

campus is a mirror o the values and

vision o the patrons who commis-

sioned it and who built one o the

worlds largest sustainable energy

companies. Instead o a tall, glass box

on a congested site, it is spread out in

the orm o a campus, centered on a

generous garden, accented by water

streams leading to a magniicent wa-

ter all, nurturing a crescent relect-

ing pool that holds a contemporary

Deepastambha, an obelisk holding

hundreds o lamps emitting positive

energy! Three glass chimneys, acili-

tated by sky courts suck air out rom

the basement. These iconic motis,

and the main corporate atrium, are all

aligned with the Deepastambha, act-

ing as ocal points in the lush, green

garden. The Corporate Atrium relects

this idea with a large circular enclosed

glass garden rom which the campus

water emanates and lows. While

building a Green Building complex,

was a matter o civic responsibility,

the objective o the design was to

make a great place to Work. This took

the shape o a Land Scraper, opposing

the idea o a Skyscraper! It is a counter

blast to the glass box.



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Balance With traditionSuzlon One Earth derives its inspiration

rom large Indian historical campuses

like Fatehpur Sikri and the Meenakshi

Sundareshvara Temple complex in Ma-

durai. Both employ an interpositioning

o open and closed spaces that bal-

ances one another. Both have strong

horizontal elements that tie the com-

plexes together and accent eatures

that emphasize quadrants and sacred

places, like the gopura at Meenakshi.

The Panch Mahal at Fatehpur Sikri is

a multi-storied structure that main-

tains its scale through the employ-


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ment o modular construction, whose

components are expressed, imparting

the structure scale and proportions.

In these historical precedents there

are also water bodies and open court-

yards, as in Suzlon One Earth! Ground

level pavilions and arcades open into

the courts and allow borrowing o vi-

sual experiences. These great campus

complexes inspired the architecture

as a starting point. From their legacy

o concepts I selected motis, compo-

nents and elements to build a mod-

ern garden campus, with a modern

unction. To these I transposed motis

like the Deepastambha, which is a tra-


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ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & PeopleJanuary 201128


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Solar photovoltaic panels orm the roo o the atrium o the learning centre, generating green power.

The glass cylinder connecting the earth and the sky at various entry portals.


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Welcome lounge at the entry o the campus.


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Waterbody.

The Deep Sthamb, or the central oblix reaching out to the sky as symbol o excellence and hope.


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ditional marker in the Pune region.

The glass cylinders began to line out

auspicious, ordinate axis and gave se-

quences to intersecting axis that unite

the complex into one whole.

Balance BetWeen Mindand Spirit

The design process started with a

premise o creating a central gathering

space, or Brahmasthan, with the sky

as its ceiling! I conceived it as a secret

internal garden that gits an exclu-

sive and unique eel to the campus. It

is a pedestrian, human and convivial

space. Vehicles are relegated to the ex-


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treme periphery and to the basement

entry points called Terminuses. This

is very much compositional architec-

ture on an urban design scale. It is like

this: Suzlon is about sustainability; it

is about renewable energy; it is about

wind energy. So also the architecture

reects these generic ideas and con-

cepts! Let us not orget this basic act

though our ultimate objective is to

create a choreography o vibrant work-

ing spaces! Our ultimate goal is to raise

imaginations rom the day to day trivia

o lie into a special realm o creativity

and inspiration. In this ambiance, or

milieu, lies a zone one step outside the

world o materiality and is the king-

dom o the mind!

The Wind Lounge is one o the fve

lounges that connect exterior spaces

with interior ones. This is the centre o

the corporate learning centre, or the

Suzlon Excellence Academy. Here one

fnds a wind museum and a wind library.

There is a very traditional Indian Chowk

here, with kund-like steps leading into

a water pool shaded by photovoltaic

panels allowing fltered light in, as ithrough an ancient jaali. This is a centre

where wind meets humanity very em-

phatically through empirical analysis,

exploration and education. The struc-

ture is not just a collection o rooms, but

rather like an art gallery where one can

explore on their own in a serendipity

manner. One can step into the theatre

and view a flm; retreat into the library

and read; saunter through the museum

and learn something new each day;

browse the Wind Shop and buy some

interesting sustainable keepsake; or,

just sit interacting with riends and col-

leagues in the central meeting Chowk.

This is more like an inormal gallery o

the mind than like a corporate institute.

Balance With changeThe needs o the client were grow-

ing and changing almost rom week

to week during the design process.

We began with a requirement or one

thousand inhabitants and ended up

with about two thousand, fve hun-

dred people accommodated within the

campus. The unctions were changing

just as quickly.

I realized to really solve this trans-

ormational conundrum I needed to


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create a transormational system that

by its very nature was less specifc and

more general! So I created a simple ar-

rangement o Server Spaces and Served

Spaces. The Served Spaces cover the

lions share o the campus where peo-

ple work. These are in act exible and

adaptive cold shells that can accom-

modate modular walls and urniture

systems. They can re-invent and re-

defne themselves whenever needed,

almost continuously! These are served

by more rigid cores that house wet ar-

eas, utility shats, ducts, fre stairs, el-

evators, entry and reception areas that

will not change over time. These fxed

items are designed to be adaptable. So

in my mind I separated these out. Then

I invented modules like the silo fre

stairs; the benchmark glass cylinders

and the 8.4 by 8.4 meter modules that

can be used like a Lego Set and moved

about in ones mind to create internal

and external spaces. I more or less

broke the complex problem down into

its basic components. Then there were

the elemental problems o enclosure,

or which I selected horizontal louvers,

APC cladding and glass; and, the prob-

lems o shelter or which I selected the

over-hanging copper roos. So the de-

sign analysis involved designing the

motis (cylinders, water bodies, Deep-

asthum, and gardens); inventing the

components or modules and creating

elements that tie all o these together.

Like the historic campuses the

ground level opens out reely to em-

brace the garden courtyards. There

are also careully articulated, design

decisions like the Deepasthum, Brah-

masthan, the glass cylinders, the water

channels and water alls and the low-

ered crescent ood court. These eternal

components were all inherent to the

design rom the frst week o my work-

ing and they carried through right to

the end.

Balance With natureI employed earth design, not a brand-

ing exercise or symbolic gesture, but

because it is inherent in every aspect

o the work. By Earth Design we mean

more than what is meant by just a rat-

ed Green building or a Platinum LEED

structure! We mean a design that puts

people frst and close to nature. Ev-

eryone can sense the seasons and the

time o the day rom their place o work!

There is visual access to the large cen-

tral gardens rom everywhere. There

is a sense o connection between the

various kinds o spaces right rom the

underground entries vide the sunlight

that descends there rom the Sky Courts

Caeteria


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and the Glass Cylinders and the vegeta-

tion that ows rom these elements, up

through the cylinders into the main cir-

culation nodes o the building.

As a designer I worked more like a

choreographer o a flm, working out

sequential movements through space,

inter-locking spaces, integrating spaces

and seeing what the impact o a space is

on the person kinetically moving within

and through the spaces. It is really this

human-context engagement that is

the core o the design and this is what

is earthy about it. We have maintained

a strong primordial link between man

and nature.

Synera Engg & Construction Limited

led by Mr J R Tanti, was responsible orthe complete synergy o various design-

ers rom concept stage to completion o

this one o the greenest buildings.

Benninger calls the Tanti Family true

patrons o architecture comparable to

the Sarabhais, the Guggenheims and

the Rockeellers. He considers Suzlon

One Earth as his latest masterpiece

ater his award winning Mahindra

United World College o India, built

ten years ago.

the Year Award instituted by A+D magazinein the Year 2007. He was conerred the GreatMaster Architect Award in 2008. Recently hehas been conerred ArchiDesign Architecto the Decade Award. The frms projectshave been fnalists in the Aga Khan Awardor Architecture (2001) and the WorldArchitecture Awards UK. (2002, 2009).Several projects have won A+D award, AYA

awards, IIA awards and Archidesign awardsin the past ten years. Pro. Benninger is onthe Editorial Board o CITIES (U.K); and aDistinguished Proessor at CEPT, Ahmedabad.As an internationally known design houseChristopher Charles Benninger Architectscreate products ranging rom capital citiesand new towns; educational campusesand corporate headquarters; housingestates and complexes; hotels resorts andhospitals; down to the design o individualchairs and art works. Some o the frmsbest known projects are Suzlon One Earth

Global Headquarters, IIM-Calcutta, BajajCorporate Tower, Kochi Refneries CorporateBuilding, Supreme Court o Bhutan, YMCAInternational Campsite, CDSA and MahindraUnited World College.

Photos: A. Ramprasad Naidu, HarminderSingh, Owen Raggett, Ritesh Ramaiaha

Pro. Christopher Benninger - Bornin America in 1942, Pro. ChristopherBenninger has lived and worked inIndia or the past 40 years. He studiedCity Planning at MIT and Architectureat Harvard University. As an institutionbuilder he ounded the School o UrbanPlanning at CEPT, Ahmedabad in 1971with Balkrishna Doshi, and there aterounded the Centre or DevelopmentStudies and Activities in Pune, India (1976).He has prepared city and urban plans or

Thane and Kalyan in India, besides othertowns in Asia. He has won the Designero the Year award (1999) and AmericanInstitute o Architects/ ArchitecturalRecord Award: 2000 or his design o theMahindra United World College o India.He was awarded The Golden Architect o

ARCHITECTURE

TRIVIA QUIZTHE CALIBRATED VIEW

1. Which architect designed VillaSavoye (Poissy, France)?

a. I.M. Pei

b. Le Corbusier

c. Frank O. Gehry

d. Richard Neutra

2. Which architect was part

of the team that designed

the Centre Pompidou

(Paris, France)?

a. Richard Rogers

b. Walter Gropius

c. Le Corbusier

d. I.M. Pei

3. Which architect designed

the Farnsworth House

(Plano, Illinois)?

a. Walter Gropius

b. Mies van der Rohe

c. Richard Neutra

d. Tullio Inglese

Answers:1.LeCorbusier,2.RichardRogers3.MiesvanderRohe

Documents

Suzlon - One Earth - Prof. Christopher Benninger