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The site for the new building is flanked on the west by an existing adjoining 8 storey engineering college building within which the café kitchen is located and on the North by the studio’s earlier project for an Information Technology college building.
The Café Pavilion a partially open dining space, is an addition/extension to an existing indoor cafeteria at the K.J. Somaiya Institute on their Sion campus in Northern Mumbai. The pavilion was designed to accommodate the dining space as well as create a physical link between these two existing buildings with a brick amphitheatre as the central pivot. Designed as a continuous platform, the dining space plinth weaves between existing trees, connecting both the buildings covered by a light translucent roof that floats above. The multi-wall polycarbonate roofing is aligned to match the height of the light shelf of the neighbouring IT building. The roofing membrane is suspended from a beam structure above the membrane so the roof plane appears continuous from below, with occasional shadows of tree foliage falling on it thus animating the space below.
The beam structure is held in place by peripheral circular columns which hold light fixtures as well as a cantilevered fixed seat all along the periphery of the plinth. This single detail of the column to seat, column to beam and beam to the roof membrane structures the entire project. The edge of the multi-wall polycarbonate roof structure hence stands independent of the columns making it appear light and independent of the vertical support.
Project Facts:
- Project Name: K.J. Somaiya IT Cafeteria Pavilion
- Architecture Firm: Sameep Padora & Associates (sP+a)
- Design Team: Nikita Khatwani, Subham Pani, Aparna Dhareshwar,
- Completion Year: 2019
- Built Area: 1000 sq m
- Project Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra. India (https://goo.gl/maps/Dzog7Mij1gS2)
- Photographer: Sergio Ghetti
- Structural Consultant: Rajeev Shah
- MANUFACTURERS / PRODUCTS LEXAN multi-wall polycarbonate JSW Steel Sections
Lighting by Tulip Corporation
Kota Stone Flooring
Jalaram Brick
Born in Chamba, Northern India, Sameep Padora established his Mumbai based practice in 2007 after graduating from the GSD, Harvard University.
His practice has in the past received the Beazley Architecture Prize, Archdaily’s Building of The Year 2019, Wallpaper Magazine’s House of the Year, as well as commendations in the 2010 AR Emerging Architecture awards for their Shiv Temple in Wadeshwar and the 2018 AR Library awards for the Maya Somaiya Library in Kopargaon.
AR Emerging Architecture awards 2020
Click here to find out more and apply today
Earlybird deadline (save £100): 19 June 2020
Deadline: 4 September 2020
Current projects in the studio include terraced courtyard housing in Goa, an Artists Residency project near a historic town in southern India as well as an adaptive reuse project of a 12th century fort in the Himalayan foothills.
Besides the architectural studio, Padora runs a not-for-profit sPare that researches issues of urbanization in India. Their research project on forms of affordable housing in Mumbai will be published internationally by the NAi later this year. He is also the co-founder of the Bandra Collective a group of 6 architects engaged with the design of public spaces in Mumbai.
Sameep Padora comments on the AR Emerging Architecture awards
‘The Shiv Temple for which we received the commendation was one of our earliest architectural projects. The award was a ratification of the direction of the work we had just begun to produce as a young practice and helped instill confidence in the criticality of our ideas.
‘The media coverage internationally was significant and brought the project and our practice a fair amount of attention. The impact of the prize on the practice was that it helped us articulate a critical position towards architecture in India through our work which transferred to our work on other projects as well. The body of work we have built or are in the process of building today, is fashioned to an extent by the recognition that the Shiv Temple received.’
AR Emerging Architecture 2020
Inaugurated in 1999 and now in their 22nd year, the AR Emerging Architecture awards support young architects and designers at a key stage in their career, promoting their best work to a worldwide audience.
The AR will recognise excellence in an overall body of work, rather than a singular project: entrants are asked to submit a small portfolio rather than an individual completed building. Shortlisted projects will be featured in a special edition of the AR and all finalists will be presenting their work to our acclaimed judging panel in Lisbon at the World Architecture Festival this December to win the £10,000 prize.
Previous winners include Comunal Taller de Arquitectura, Carla Juaçaba Studio, Sou Fujimoto, Klein Dytham, Anna Heringer, Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Heatherwick, Li Xiaodong and Frida Escobedo. Find out more about last year’s winning and commended projects here.
