Location: Mumbai
Size: 1,50,000 sq ft
Client: Rajasthani Sammelan
Status: 2016
Rajasthani Sammelan is one of the leading philanthropic educational trust bodies in Mumbai. As a part of the trust, Rajasthani Sammelan had launched various educational establishments such as a management institute, international school, graduate college, sports grounds and various vocational courses. All these institutions were centrally managed by the trust which provided funding, guidance and direction to each institute.
Strategy Initiative
In all its diversity, there was a need to create a strong brand identity of the trust to bind together all the diverse institutions under one umbrella, while also encouraging each institution to carve out its own niche identity. The project involved developing the centralised brand architecture and brand identity as well as individual institute brand identities.
Architectural Initiative
We worked with Rajasthani Sammelan to redevelop their site to expand their operations. The existing 2 storey and 5 storey older structures were demolished and in their place a twelve storey and a seven storey tower has been constructed. The new buildings house 6 institutions including a Management College, a Media College, 3 Schools and a Women's Hostel. The buildings are designed as flexible modern boxes, where the layout of the classrooms allows for maximum customization as the users change over the floors and across the institutes. Inside, each classroom has 4 large windows to maximise the sunlight entering into the space, and the corridors connecting them are wide, and well lit. The grid facade formed by the windows of the building is animated by calling out certain special spaces like conference rooms, libraries etc with specialised massing or curtain glazing.All institutes have frontage on the arterial SV Road. On the ground floor, each institute has its own lobby and vertical circulation that is exclusive to students belonging to that institute. The development of a sports complex is also being undertaken in the playground.
Interiors Initiative
Connect Four has also designed the interiors of the hostel. The hostel, occupying the top 2 floors of the educational building, has a 100 student capacity in a mix of 1, 2 and 3-bed rooms. The rooms are located along a double loaded wide corridor with lots of natural light – through skylights and slab cutouts between the two floors. These double height cutouts, with special wall graphics designed by us and benches in the corridor create an active social street for the inhabitants. This encourages social interaction and combats loneliness, since the students are away from home. Common areas are located on the upper level with a mix of indoor and semi-covered outdoor deck space. This area is connected to the lower level corridor through a large floor cutout.All student rooms have attached toilets for better privacy. Rooms have separate WC, washbasin and shower areas to enable three students to use them simultaneously. At the same time, the rooms are designed in a way that room and storage area can be locked separately and service staff can independently access the restrooms for cleaning. The furniture is custom designed to maximise space, with each student having a wardrobe, desk and a bunk bed as a combined unit.
Branding Initiative
Apart from the design of the spaces, it was essential to also create a communication theme that highlighted the trust and its various institutes. A brand identity was designed for the trust and also all the group institutes. We used the concept of a solar system symbolising the trust as a sun which provides central energy to all the other institutes. We have used a modern, clean and contemporary vocabulary in designing the identities and communication to reflect the strategy and the design of the spaces.In the hostel, the corridor graphic echo famous landmarks across the world. They are rendered in an abstract graphic style and they animate the social corridor.
Graphic Design by Mansi Rastogi