RAJESH RENGANATHAN >>

RAJESH RENGANATHAN is an emerging face of the changing contemporary architectural environment of India. He has an established practice in Bangalore in Rajesh Renganathan Architects.

After graduating from CEPT, Ahmedabad, he later went to do his masters at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, UPENN, Philadelphia. He has been honoured with the Architect of the Year Award 2001 and Institute of Engineers Gold Medal 1990. His works have been published in Architect and Builder and A+D.

2DC817 :HOUSE- STUDIO (A+D, MAY 2004)
Bangalore 1999-2001.

Design brief was to provide living accommodation for a family of three along with studio workspaces, on a typical urban plot measuring 60x40 feet. An attempt has been made to situate the building creatively in its immediate as well as larger, social and geographical context.

The program is fragmented into two blocks arranged in an L configuration. Footprint of the L is pushed to the extreme allowable by building regulations, allowing for a generous back garden. Living spaces are stacked at the upper levels while work studios occupy the basement floors. Plan form adopted questions prevalent notions of functionality and privacy. Arrangement of spaces recalls traditional dwellings that comprise an anonymous array of rooms connected with each other through doors. In contrast with everyday experience, bathrooms here are always areas of transition.

Bangalore’s situation in an equatorial location, at an altitude of 1000m, along with its gently undulating landscape dotted with small lakes, gives it a unique ‘local’ climate; distinct from neighboring areas. While experience of separate seasons is relatively indistinct, short-term variations in weather are marked and dramatic. An attempt was made to create a sensitive device that would record the changing conditions of the natural environment.

A key element in the project is the layered screen wall which, in fact, contains all the elements of the conventional window including security grills, insect mesh screens, glass and curtains/ movable blinds. This is reformed using a steel industrial glazing system fitted onto a series of load bearing I-stanchions. This includes operable top hung windows as well as fixed panels fitted with a variety of clear, translucent and opaque in-fills. Sliding insect mesh screens in padauk frames slide up or down between the I-sections as needed.