A sculptural, geometric façade made of HI-MACS® for a building in New Delhi

Thu, May 20, 2021 10:57 AM

Located in one of the highest-traffic parts of downtown New Delhi, India, is a monumental building whose façade, covered with Solid Surface HI-MACS®, stands out from the surrounding constructions. This institutional building meets the original objective of Conarch Architects, the firm tasked with its design. One of the key ideas behind it was functionality, as the entire indoor space was intended to house a combination of open-plan offices, individual offices, conference and meeting rooms - with parking spaces minimised, in view of the city’s nascent public transport system. At the same time, the building’s aesthetics are striking, thanks to a façade formed by an arrangement of geometric shapes that, despite their simplicity, create a highly expressive and sculptural look.

The structure of the building consists of six stories of open-plan workspaces, individual offices, conference rooms and meeting rooms. The bottom floors contain all kinds of break-out spaces, service areas and multipurpose halls, available to the 350 employees that the structure can accommodate. The top floors are earmarked for offices, meeting rooms, open workspaces and, last but not least, the roof-top terrace. In line with the functional design of the rest of the project, the roof was arranged to be a pleasant terrace, from which incredible panoramic views of New Delhi’s urban area can be enjoyed.

The façade, made entirely in the pure, iconic hue of HI-MACS® Alpine White, is a striking three-dimensional vision, achieved through its arrangement of triangular shapes.

One important aspect for the façade’s aesthetic appeal is that its location at the corner of the building only further enhances its shapes and its reliefs. What’s more, the cladding not only adds a sculptural touch, but it also enriches and protects the whole building’s structural facing.

In the evening, when the construction’s night-time lighting comes on, the façade’s visual charm is accentuated by LED back-lighting installed behind the geometric shapes covering its entire surface. This interplay of lights and shapes transforms the whole corner of the building, separating it from its neighbours and arousing great interest and excitement in passers-by.

Thanks to its infinite design possibilities, HI-MACS® was the perfect choice for this kind of façade cladding. For projects with these types of characteristics, the material’s thermoformable nature means it can be shaped into any organic and/or three-dimensional form, not to mention the spectacular lighting effects that can be achieved through milling and back-lighting, as well as the translucent properties made possible with HI-MACS®.

For exteriors, acrylic stone also offers excellent advantages, such as high resistance to humidity, ultraviolet rays and changes in temperature, conditions that are essential to this type of project. HI-MACS® Alpine White S728, which offers increased fire-resistance, is also the first solid surface on the market to receive official European Technical Approval (ETA) for façade applications. In addition, this material has earned France’s QB and CSTB ATec (Technical Appraisal) certification for its original, advanced HI-MACS® UV+ S828 formula for façade applications.

Its certified resistance to weather and other external factors, plus its easy-to-clean uniform, non-porous surface, guarantee its constant aesthetic quality and high-level durability.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Project name: JK House

Client: J.C. Chaudhry

Location: New Delhi, India

Architects: Conarch Architects | https://www.conarch.co - Principal Architect: S.K. Goel

HI-MACS® supplier: Bansal Sales | http://www.bansalsales.co.in

Production: A.S. Interiors

Material: HI-MACS® Alpine White S028 | http://www.himacs.eu