Located in the heart of New Town, Action Area-II of Kolkata, the site will house an Integrated Office complex for WBMSCL. With the site being surrounded by mostly vacant land, lush greenery and a modern urban grid, it has the unique potential for ‘social centralization’- providing a meeting point/ gathering place for different user groups that may pass through the site. Instead of creating an isolated identity within a density, this project aims to create a passageway, a thoroughfare that connects to the public through the ‘heart’ of health care facility hub. By doing so, the architecture creates a sense of place instead of just space.
The form tries to infuse fluidity in the space which is a metaphor of human anatomy symbolising the character and image/function of the organisation.
Since this complex requires different kinds of uses like auditorium, conference halls of different sizes, restaurant and food court, guest houses, Bank/ ATM, cafe, the zoning and organisation of spaces have been done in a very discreet way. While working out the area for different functions in this complex, it is found that the majority of the spaces will be used for office spaces. Therefore, structural system for the main office tower has been considered as 8.5 m x 8.5 m grid which can also accommodate car parking in the two basements efficiently.
The auditorium and the big seminar halls (500, 300 and 2 nos. 200 seats, respectively) have been separated from the main office building since they require a different kind of structural system for larger spans. They have been housed together under one roof at the corner of the plot, the form of which will be more sculptural and will act as a vista / landmark and identity for the street intersection.