Location: Mumbai
Area:279 Sq. Mt.
Status: Built
Design Team: Gurmeet Akali, Vinay Mathias
Mumbai like many other cities in the developing world is in constant flux, and as natures of economies change so do their their linked human and production related resources. With high monetary values riding on real estate development in Mumbai, projects like CREO are symptomatic of the typology of work that young firms in Mumbai are usually commissioned for. Situated in a beautiful space within a Victorian Gothic building Creo became for us a search for native latent human skill and mechanical resources that the city of Mumbai incubates which we could leverage for the production of Creo?s built form. The first process for us however was one of excavation and conservation uncovering the original construct of the malad stone arched facade and wooden joist ceiling that lay beneath layers of commercial signage and storage. We then designed a shopping module that fits tight by a staggered interlocking configuration into a central location on the ground and has a mirror image incorporating more display space at mezzanine level. The formal construct of our project hence becomes a logical outcome of incorporating program. Hence this creates a 4 meter tall performative sculptural installation within the space. The container stands out as does the contained. The production process involved using the dying skills of the ship building industry in the city (with the shifting of the port) for the steel structure of the construct and a rubberized polymer skin traditionally used by small scale toy manufactures in the production of children toys in the city. Hence Creo becomes both a formal manifestation of program as well as a projection of the city as a network of latent resources.
The factory is located on a plot in a logistical warehousing facility on the outskirts of Mumbai. As is typical of most industrial warehouses in the area, the default construction material for most buildings is corrugated metal sheathing and the general prevalent built form is opaque without visual or physical connection to the immediate environment, thus turning the precinct into a continuous hard edge. Our first instinct was to position the project as relief from the experience of this existing impervious precinct mass. On the North-West corner of our site, a portion prone to seasonal flooding we consolidated a low lying, as a water body that fluctuates through the year allowing for water to enter and drain the site based on surrounding water levels. While the expression of the building?s heaviness was of interest, the heart of the project is the void of the central open to sky courtyard around which the factory?s building?s production floors are organized. These relatively thin floorplates ensured well-lit work spaces. The central open to sky courtyard is visually connected to the common spaces of the precinct outside the building through the void under a 50 foot cantilevered floor over the seasonal water body doubling as a shaded breakout space for the employees. The cast-in-place heavy concrete materiality of the ?porous? block is in sharp contrast to lightweight but opaque steel sheathing of the buildings around. The corner void connecting to the central void courtyard creates an extroverted factory type, visually linking to the access road beyond the site as well as offering relief from the impenetrable adjoining building masses.
