Located 30 kilometers from Pune at Dhamane, the site is nestled in the hilly backdrop of the Sahyadri mountain range. The solitary plot is a part of the rugged terrain at the foothills. The Kirloskar Corporate family aims to create a new set of enterprising managers for the country and hence promoted the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies. The campus, apart from educating students to become future managers, also imparts training programs to mid and senior-level management personnel sponsored by industries.
Editor’s Note: This Institute designed by CCBA is a fine example of simple cartesian planning. The minimal modernist use of materials and a keen focus on functionality within a regional context create a cohesively planned campus. A series of courtyards and walkways evolved from the natural contours, make this campus an intervention of the human effort to design with nature.
Nestled In The Sahyadri Mountain Range, Kirloskar Corporate Sets Up A New Institute | CCBA Designs
Simple Cartesian planning, minimal modernist use of materials, and a keen focus on functionality within a regional context create a cohesively planned campus that serves solely to benefit its inhabitants—the students. The various levels of the Sahyadri mountain range on campus gradually widen or narrow the line of sight, sequentially revealing and concealing the grandeur of the mountain ranges and the built environment as one walks through this temple of education.
Courtyards and corridors become interactive spaces. An inherent, climate-responsive design methodology washes pockets of spaces and building interiors with optimum, comfortable daylight.
The campus in the Sahyadri Mountain Range can be divided into three wings. An academic and another residential, with the green spine separating the two. As one approaches from a distance, several lofty turrets rise over the landscape. They crown the stark concrete blocks, adorned with earth coloured galvalume sheets. Uniquely designed pitched roofs covered with Kalzip aluminium sheets draw influence from East Asian temple pagodas. They form the highlight of the campus.
On reaching a subtle campus entrance at a higher contour that gently slopes into a semi-covered atrium framed by offices of the administration, classrooms, seminar halls, and library spread over ground and first floor levels. This large courtyard hosts annual convocation functions and public lectures while becoming a discussion area on regular days.
A central dining hall and kitchen that serves all the inhabitants of the campus separates the academic area. The dining hall has three chambers that include a large dining hall for about 200 graduate students, along with two smaller halls for executives and faculty.
All the halls are connected to a central pre-function area, connected to the kitchen and restrooms. Polished Kota stone flooring, holding vertically transparent glass walls, opens the dining halls onto the valleys and various courtyards. The pitched roof internally held by ceramic ceiling sheets mimics wooden panels, bringing that warmth to the casual dining activity.
A series of large and small courtyards connected by ramps and steps, punctuated by concrete mural walls, divide and connect the three distinct parts of the campus: the academic area, the dining area, and the residential area. The residential area accommodates students and senior managers who visit for short-term training in various hostels. Rooms are connected by corridors onto which the wet cores open up for occasional servicing, while externally opening to the various courtyards.
The institute is intimate in scale yet spatially open, unfurling in synchrony with the existing natural elements, the flora, the earth, and the distant landscape. This orchestration of various functional units of the campus with a series of courtyards and walkways evolved from the natural contours, making this campus a perfectly planned intervention of the human effort to design with nature.
Fact File
Designed by: CCBA Designs
Project Type: Educational Architecture Design
Project Name: Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies
Location: Pune
Year Built: 2013
Built-up Area: 308063 sqft
Principal Architects: Prof. Christopher Benninger
Team Design Credits: Shivaji Karekar, Rahul Sathe, Aditya Inamdar, Rahul Deshmukh, Hrishikesh More, Nivedita Kelkar, Nilesh Desai, Noel Jerald V
Photograph Courtesy: Ramprasad Naidu A & Deepak Kaw
Lead Team: Daraius Choksi
Landscape Architecture: Ravi & Varsha Gavandi Landscape Architects
General Contractor: Vascon, Ghalsasi Constructions, Bakale Constructions
Structural: Kirloskar Consultants, Strudcom
MEP: Kirloskar Consultants, EMEA, Infinity HVAC, Piping Consultants, CLR Consulting
Project Management: Madhav Limaye Group, Kirloskar Consultants
Source: Archdaily
Firm’s Website Link: CCBA Designs
Firm’s Instagram Link: CCBA Designs
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