Mumbai Warehouse, Mahpe, Navi Mumbai, India

This warehouse sits in a fast developing commercial and industrial zone along a national highway near Mumbai.  The environs are dotted with factories, storage facilities and IT-office complexes.  The approach was to develop a three-dimensional façade on the otherwise box-like structure.  This façade is conceived as a transmitter of daylight, minimizing the requirement for artificial lighting while also managing the intense heat and glare of the summer sun.  The skin of the building is divided into vertical strips which fold outward in an alternating rhythm, allowing diffuse light to slip sideways into the large volume.  

The construction of the building is simple: a reinforced concrete frame with concrete block infill and exterior plaster. The construction of the folds in the façade posed the major structural and constructional challenge in the project. The final method was to create the folds from a series of welded metal plates that would be sprayed with ‘gunite’ and then plastered smooth, allowing for speed of construction and a precision that would be difficult to achieve in pre-cast concrete. 

Photographs: Dinesh Mehta, Rajat Dilwali/Kinsey Brothers
Project Team: Vrinda Khanna, Robert Schultz, Christian Rietzke, Margaret Gorman, Virginia Nolan
Structural Engineering: Struct-Wel Consultants