Zydus Corporate Park | Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Technology and Tradition Come Together to Redefine the Office Building Archetype at Zydus Corporate Park
Envisioned as a resilient 21st-century workplace that borrows from Gujarat’s vibrant architectural and cultural heritage, the head office of Zydus, located along a busy highway in suburban Ahmedabad sensitively responds to the region’s extreme hot-dry climate.
A robust monolith with a peaked profile, the building’s fortress-like form references mediaeval-era monuments from the walled city of Ahmedabad: The Bhadra Fort, the Pavagadh Fort, the stepped courts of Adalaj, as well as from the traditional ‘Bhunga’ architecture of Kutch. The Pavagadh Fort provided key contextual cues for the three rampart-like walls forming the western facade that effectively screens the interiors from the harsh summer sun and provides a thermal buffer against extreme temperatures. These doubly-curved Corten steel bulwarks (14,200 data points) are articulated in the intricate geometries of Ahmedabad’s traditional metal craft of the ‘Kansaras’, translated parametrically through computational design. The triangular glass tubes embedded within the walls are inspired by mirror work on ‘Bhungas’, vernacular Kutch dwellings venerated for their architectural resilience and ornamentation. The tubes are finished in dichroic film, catching the sun’s movement through the day and rendering the facade with a perpetually kaleidoscopic dynamism.
Spanning east to west, the walls shield and create an oasis for the north-south oriented office towers that abut their edge. The towers are spaced apart to shade the stepped courtyards between them, thereby generating a suitable microclimate to encourage outdoor recreation and engagement. The column-free work halls are completely glare-free, 100

Consultants :
Structure: Sterling
MEP: Sanelac
HVAC: Sanelac
Plumbing: Sanelac
Electrical: Sanelac
Landscape Design: Morphogenesis
Fire Fighting: Sanelac
Environmental Design: SGS
Façade: Meinhardt Façade Technology
Green consultant: SGS India
Lighting: Vis à Vis
AV: KLM Design
Traffic: Transfic
Hospitality Consultants India (HCIPL)

Team of Architects: Neelu Dhar; John Alok De Cruz; Aakansha Aggarwal; Munazza Akhtar