Misc threads archived

[Thunderflip]

Better in architecture than 90% of the malls in the Philippines despite having the Filipino mall culture for many decades already. Maybe smaller, dirtier as said, inferior quality products as said, but the designs are plannings are so upsclae, it could easily compete with those of ASEAN.I never really expected to see this.Well, Philippines still has the title of the Best Mall in the World so far and soon the world`s largest.

[Thunderflip]

Very modern. Once again, symbols of an amerging India.I like the way India has lots of unique low-rise but ultra-modern buildings!So amazing and almost unbelievable as it is now I believe the India has potential to reach China`s current economic power by 2050.

[kronik]

Mall mania spreading across the country

Real estate developers are cashing in on the retail sector boom. Over 200 malls with a combined retail space of 2.5 crore square feet are sprouting across the country at an investment of Rs 12,500 crore, eight times of Rs 1,500 crore invested till last year.

Leading the mall development drive are Spencer Plaza in Chennai, DLF’s Promenade in Delhi, Unitech’s Great India at Noida, each measuring around 10 lakh sq ft.

The list of top developers including Growel’s 7.5 lakh sq ft complex in Mumbai as well as the six lakh sq ft malls each of Prestige group at Bangalore and Pittie group at Pune.

The issue of rentals notwithstanding, shopping and entertainment malls are clearly on the high growth track. According to the ICICI study, malls are estimated to become a Rs 38,447 crore sector by 2010.

[Hindustani]

Queens Plaza Mall, Hyderabad



Babu Khan Mall, Hyderabad



City Centre, Hyderabad

[Jai]

I really like the Babu Khan Mall render

[Suncity]

Skyline Sea Pearl , Calicut

[Suncity]

These pics are from Architect Deepak Mehta's website. They have finally done some changes to the poor quality website and probably are still experimenting with layouts.

I like his buildings, but the renderings are really bad.

Rendering:



Actual:

Sterling Tower, Chennai









Nitco Tower, Chennai







Sapna Trade Centre, Chennai





Sea Breeze/Sagar Darshan - 19 Towers, Navi Mumbai (this really were the first towers on Palm Beach Marg)







Adhiraj Gardens Cypress Tower (u/c) Navi Mumbai



http://www.adhiraj.com/PROj-LAYOUT.htm

[kshatriya]

Good stuff.....an interesting article, will post here till moved to the Mumbai projects thread.

Multi-storeyed growth

The countrywide building boom has provided architects with a range of exciting projects

Jai Arjun Singh / New Delhi October 02, 2004



These are busy times for architecture firm Studio U+A. Around the end of 2002 the firm, which is an arm of a British firm, had only three major projects on its drawing boards.

Today it has 10 major contracts and growth has doubled in each of the last two years. The company is now working on three office complexes, a five-star hotel and a giant 3 million sq ft residential complex Vatika City.

It’s a similar story at another Delhi-based architecture studio, Morphogenesis, which has grown four times in the past three years. The company is currently handling projects worth over Rs 700 crore, including a 500-acre township near Siliguri and the 50-storey World Trade Centre tower in Mumbai.

Building fever has hit not just the National Capital Region (NCR) and other metros but also smaller cities and towns across the country. And among those most affected by the boom are architects who are being asked to turn out bigger and fancier structures than ever before.

That’s reflected in the plethora of exciting new building projects that architectural firms and studios have on hand. Take C P Kukreja Associates — named one of the top four architectural firms in the Australia-Asia region by the UK-based World Architecture magazine — which has seen its employee strength grow from 180 people last year to 225 now.

The firm is working on the Delhi Metro’s underground stations and on a new nine-storeyed 150-bed super speciality wing in Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital. “Earlier there was an ‘anything goes’ attitude to the designing of hospitals,” says Dikshu Kukreja, “but now even these are expected to look classy.”

Other key projects include the jewellery mall Gold Souk, which will open next month in Gurgaon. “We did some research on similar souks in the Middle East,” says Kukreja, “but the final concept was ours.” The interior of the design, he says, has been done so as to “evoke the image of a pearl in an oyster shell”.

C P Kukreja Associates is also working on The Forest, a high-end residential complex being developed in Noida by Omaxe, complete with high-rise towers and penthouses.

Morphogenesis already has an impressive list of glass-and-steel creations under its belt. It built the Metropolitan Mall and the Apollo corporate office in Gurgaon, as well as several PVR cinemas in the NCR and other cities.

Morphogenesis is now handling projects worth around Rs 700 crore —one of which is the 500-acre Uttarayon township on the outskirts of Siliguri, on the site of an abandoned tea garden. The development plans for 1,600 apartments and 300 lower- and middle-income group units for a total resident population of around 50,000 people.

Around 150,000 sq m will be set aside for shopping, offices, community halls, health facilities and schools. While the project will take three years to complete, the first two phases have been sold already. “That’s quite an achievement for the region,” says Rastogi.

The Siliguri township is an indicator that the growth is not restricted to metros and big cities. “B-class cities like Ludhiana and Jaipur are attracting a lot of attention,” says Sandeep Roy, director, Studio U+A India, explaining that a small group of developers has established an oligopoly of sorts over prominent suburbs like Gurgaon — “which means that the other builders have to look at other areas”. Rastogi goes a bit further.

“Metros are becoming less lucrative because of the high property prices,” he says. “In the long run, towns like Jaipur will bring in much higher profit margins.”

“The building boom is percolating to satellite towns like Chandigarh and Pune,” says Kothari Associates’ Matisha Kothari. Her firm is working on an international airport in Ahmedabad over a 22,000 sq m area, and at a cost of Rs 137 crore. It is also building the terminal for a domestic airport in Dibrugarh. Dikshu Kukreja speaks of a five-star hotel his company is building in Raipur.

“You’d be surprised at the awareness of people in smaller towns,” he says. “One of our clients in Indore told us expense was no bar as long as we made something as fancy as what is available in Delhi!”

What are the major changes on the Indian architectural scene? According to Roy, three notable trends have emerged in recent years. First, he says, there is an increased consciousness about high quality.

“Clients are demanding better quality and finish for both residential and office complexes.” This view is backed by architect Vijay Kapur of Line and Form: “People played safe in the old days but now they are better travelled, have greater media exposure and are more receptive to new ideas.”

In architectural terms, says Roy, there has been a big leap in thinking of a building in environmental terms, not just as an isolated entity. “Greater attention is paid to landscaping requirements around a building,” he says.

“And when an office complex is being planned, one of the first things to be factored in is where the staff will take their lunch break and the relaxation options that can be made available.”

Third and most important — at least from the point of view of execution of ideas — Roy believes developers are now more open to the idea of putting in higher capital costs for long-term benefits.

“They are realising that higher capital costs will give a better return in the long term, since the life of a building is at least 40 to 50 years.”

The immediate result of this has been a preponderance of buildings with longer-lasting aluminium and glass finishes. Matisha Kothari believes architectural briefs have steadily moved from functionality to aestheticism. “People demand harmony between the building exteriors and interiors,” she says.

Kukreja says that till recently there was a lacuna in the Indian architectural scene. “Design was not looked at as an integrated exercise, he says.

“We have tried to rectify this by having lighting technicians, mechanical and civil engineering workers as part of our company’s in-house staff — whereas in the past the norm has been to source such work from outside.”

But some architects insist there’s a downside to all the development. While conceding there has been a boom, Manit Rastogi says: “Many Indian firms have agreed to become the back-end for international architecture companies. As a result, there has been a thoughtless, indiscriminate aping of the West, with disregard for what is suited to Indian conditions.”

Rastogi points to large projects, for instance in the middle of Gurgaon, where each building is a severe strain on its environment. “Monsters suck water out of the ground and burn fuel for power, and there are no controls on emissions.”

Morphogenesis has tried to make the Uttarayon township as environment-friendly as possible. There will be no stormwater drains in the township. “The slope has been planned in such a way as to create natural reservoirs,” he says. “The sewage will be biologically treated with reeds, to convert it into drinkable water.”

Rastogi also grumbles that there is no coherent architectural identity in the country. “A thousand years from now, when our civilisation is excavated, they will be very confused about us!” he quips.

Dikshu Kukreja agrees that while malls need to be modern and jazzy, there must be some representation of the Indian ethos. “For instance, our consumer profile dictates that we have bhel puri stands inside the mall. We can’t blindly ape the international template.”

http://www.business-standard.com/gen...&autono=168666

Great news but wasn't the Mumbai WTC proposal a 104-storey tower? Morphogenisis' website has no further info either, their projects page just lists the 'Mumbai WTC'.

[kshatriya]

Suncity do you know about this? Any more info cause the site has very little.

"Planet Godrej" in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. 5-6 towers of more than 40 storeys.

http://www.godrejproperties.com:8100...erty.jsp?Id=11


Layout



Location

[kshatriya]

The Siliguiri township mentioned in the article...

Uttorayon Housing ,Siliguri,West Bengal.

The The Uttorayon Township lies on the fringe of Siliguri with a total projected development area of 419 acres. The development plans for approximately 2500 plots , 1600 apartments and 300 LIG and MIG units for a total resident population proposed of close to 50000 people. Approximately 150,000 sqm is dedicated to other usages which include local and convenience shopping, offices, community halls, cultural and entertainment areas, health facilities and other support facilities. Six nursery schools and a secondary school are also planned within the development.The design for this project attempts the formulation of a new urban system by addressing issues of settlement identity, dynamic and flexible infrastructure, landscape and open space distribution, and perceptual mapping fields. Space itself is used as a basic instrument of urban order. Open space is distributed in much the same way as the infrastructure on site, as a grid of usable greens. The precisely definite open space locations juxtapose dynamically with the more varied built space. A formal pattern of hierarchical socio-cultural infrastructure and a city level movement pattern is overlaid on the 'atonal' housing mass fabric to create a duality of perceptual fields. Settlement identity is derived from a clear and well-defined neighborhood character of the housing clusters. Plotted and pre-built houses are arranged around a tight cluster with a central green space that combines the terrace and square patterns of layout. The internal structuring is kept simple with a focused road system and a single centre of activity. The facilities within the cluster are given maximum exposure. Size, character and visibility are consciously varied to achieve a diversification of housing types.




Plan 1



Plan 2



Images

[kshatriya]

I like the Baywaters and Skyline buildings. Though just like all other Indian renderings, they look quirky.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by Jai

I really like the Babu Khan Mall render

So do I. I think its very creative. Gives you the impression that the building is collapsing.

Hopefully after its built they change the name to a better one.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by kshatriya

Suncity do you know about this? Any more info cause the site has very little.

"Planet Godrej" in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. 5-6 towers of more than 40 storeys.

It's a 40 storey building with several connected blocks.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_f...ntent_id=70388

An address in the clouds

By taking the stairs, a healthy man in his thirties, unburdened with grocery bags or a sleeping child, takes more than 20 minutes to reach the 45th floor of Shreepati Arcade at Nana Chowk in Mumbai. The roof-top above has only two penthouses.

The same ascent by any one of the building’s six Swiss Schindlers lifts, the fastest elevators in the world, takes only 35 seconds. The ears get slightly blocked after the 25th floor. And beyond the 35th floor, it’s only the sound of the wind one gets to hear. In the monsoon, clouds envelop the top five floors.

Constructed in 2000, Shreepati Arcade is the tallest residential building in India. Around the same time two other tall buildings, Belvedere Court and Kalpataru Heights, both 40 storeys high, also came up in Mumbai, heralding the beginning of true high-rise living in India.

India is also fast catching up with the highrise trend. The 45-storey Shreepati Arcade will soon be dwarfed by the 60-storey complex coming up in Tardeo, south Mumbai. Shapoorji Pallonji & Co., in joint venture with Dilip Thacker of the Thacker Restaurants chain, is constructing the two-tower residential project.

There are quite a few tall towers coming up across Mumbai such as Godrej Properties’ 40-storey project Planet Godrej in Mahalaxmi and DSK Developers’ 31-storey Durgamata Towers in Walkeswar, to name a couple.

Other Indian cities, where 10-12 floors used to be the limit until a couple of years ago, are suddenly witnessing hectic construction of 25 to 30-storey buildings. For example, the 36-storey South City project and the 28-storey Hiland Park are coming up in Kolkata. In Bangalore, at least 19 towers of more than 20 floors each are being built by L&T ECC near the IIM campus.

Building Baits
As they build more and more high-rise apartments, the builders are out with add-on baits to catch more buyers. A Delhi developer gives buyers an option to choose from 24 different models of imported modular kitchens each priced between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh. Ahuja Constructions has provided gold-plated bathroom fittings, Swarovski crystals fitted taps (each cost Rs 1.5 lakh) and Mexican onyx floor in its Sea World Apartment flats and imported sound-proof glass windows for the Amber Court flats, both in Bandra. Kolkata’s South City project claims to have a playground larger than the Eden Gardens

At home, Sugandha Dubey, given a chance, would any day love to move to a higher floor than her present 22nd floor apartment in Hamilton Towers (24 storeys) in Gurgaon, Haryana.

“Why not? We like height, after all,” says the young entrepreneur who runs a stock image library, Elements Inc, and a placement service. “And here it is very peaceful, dust-proof, and full of light and air. The outside view from this height is simply fantastic,” she adds, echoing top-floor dwellers around the world.

Sugandha lives with her four-year-old daughter and a whole-time domestic help. Her husband, a management consultant with IBM, stays in Singapore. However, since she began living in this apartment from January 2003, the first thing she taught her little daughter was safety. Sugandha says, “Whenever, she wants to go downstairs to play in the park, the maid accompanies her. Security, otherwise, is of little concern up on the 22nd floor.” Best of all, being only two floors below the top with just two flats on each floor, there’s virtually no one above you to peek into your backyards and privacy, she laughs.

Sugandha knows only five of the 48 families in her tower. “I get to know them mostly when I’m downstairs or join the social gatherings of the residents’ welfare committee. But who has the time?”

Almost all her upper floor neighbors are double-income couples who are either young corporate professionals or businessmen.

It’s primarily the highly successful, double-income couple who aspire for an address in the clouds. “Even a few years ago, upper floor apartments (above the fifth floor) in Gurgaon were sold cheaper than the first two floors. But now, they cost about the same,” says Suchi Mamgain, a Gurgaon-based real estate agent. She adds, “Over the last couple of years, particularly young people with an average annual income upwards of Rs 4 lakh are increasingly seeking an address beyond 20 floors. And the ground floor apartments, of late, are being resold at lower prices.”

“The young people are well-travelled and want to replicate their lifestyle experience abroad here in India,” Suchi reasons, “and their demand is suitably supported by the builders who are now providing good quality construction, design, architecture and community facilities such as swimming pool, play courts and club-houses.”

Older folks want to stay on top, too. Living nearly 17 years abroad, and once in a 17th floor apartment in Canada, Captain Vijay Beri (Retd.) and wife Mala bought a 17th floor apartment in Hamilton Towers, Gurgaon, four years ago when the building came up.

58-year-old Mala Beri says, “We are accustomed to high-rise living, and when you have two perfectly running auto-lifts, age hardly matters.”

In Powai, Jay Chatterjee, a senior corporate executive, likes the quietness of his 18th floor apartment in Hiranandani Gardens even more than the view. “Earlier, I lived on the first floor in a building in Shivaji Park, where the screams of children playing outside and the idle chatter of the building’s drivers got into my nerves after some time. Here, in a high-rise, we are spared all that.”

“Though the upper floors of high-rise buildings provide better security and privacy than lower floors, the loftiness increases the loneliness and depression for older people,” says Dr Sandeep Vohra, consultant psychiatrist, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi. However, it has little influence on the development of children. Dr Vohra agrees, “In fact, children living in high-rise apartments get more opportunity to interact and socialise with more kids in their age group.”

—With inputs from Bella Jaisinghani in Mumbai, Jaidev Majumdar in Kolkata & Reema Jose in Bangalore

[darshan8719]

i really like the disgin of all this mall. good use of glass as well. i guess people are spending money on clothes and food and thats the reason why this malls are coming up.

[Hindustani]

Maya Bazaar, Hyderabad



GVK Mall, Hyderabad



Fun Republic, Hyderabad



Fun Republic, Bangalore



Imperial Mall, Bangalore



Prestige Forum Mall, Bangalore



Fifth Avenue Mall, Bangalore



SHOPPER'S STOP

Pune





Chennai



Bandra, Mumbai



Hyderabad



Bangalore



Jaipur



Gharkopar, Mumbai



Delhi

[HasanB]

i was actually just looking around and didnt really intend to post here at first but after looking at these malls and their designs i just have to say that they are absolutely brilliant, they look very modern and some ahve great designs especially the fun republic ones !! im impresssed. Pakistan has a lot of those coming up right now with a lot more planned so hopefully this part of the world will also now have really good shopping malls.

[Suncity]

Forum Mall, Bangalore



Sab Mall, Noida



Globus, Mumbai

[kshatriya]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Globus, Mumbai

oooh Hill Road I miss it soooo much.

[kshatriya]

Several Assorted pics, some repeats.

Crompton Greaves, Mumbai



Apple Corporate HQ, Mumbai



Citibank HQ, Mumbai



Crossroads Mumbai



IL&FS, Mumbai



Infosys, Pune







L&T Landmark 'A' and 'B' Mumbai







Cognizant Technologies, Pune









National Stock Exchange, Mumbai





The Oberoi, Chennai



Hyatt Regency, Mumbai



Bank Of India, Mumbai (u/c)









SEEPZ building, Mumbai

[kshatriya]

Arihant Ega Centre, Chennai



Standard Charted Bank, Mumbai



Satguru, Mumbai



Voltas International, Mumbai



DHL, Mumbai



Citibank, Mumbai



BSES, Mumbai



Hotel Fition, Mumbai



Capital, Mumbai



Acme Plaza, Mumbai



Ratnam Square, Navi Mumbai



IL&FS Golden Crest, Mumbai



Sterling Centre, Mumbai



Raheja Plaza, Mumbai



Mayuresh Trade Center, Navi Mumbai



JMC House, Ahmedabad



Floral Deck Plaza, Mumbai



Tata Consultancy, Mumbai



Falak House, Mumbai



Rajhans Cinema, Surat



Colgate Palmolive, Mumbai



Bandra Suburbia Talkies, Mumbai



Shemaroo, Mumbai