Redevelopment of “RP Bhavan”, Nrupathunga Road, Bengaluru

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Redevelopment of Stressed Commercial Assets

The redevelopment of R.P Bhavan Commercial Complex on Nrupatunga Road brought forward many challenges during redevelopment.  The stakeholders of this building commissioned Mysore Consultants Private Limited, who are also the Architects of the old building, to help create a new identity for the building.  The process started with dismantling windows, demolition of the external walls and elevation features. This was followed by the removal the two large cantilever porches the height of which were obstructing fire truck movements. This enormous effort, compounded by restrictions of movement of trucks on the road, took about four months and involved removal of thousands of loads of debris. The service staircase and lift was added at the back using a steel structure. An additional area was added to the basement to increase the car parking space from 50 to 90 cars. Bringing in air conditioning increased the overall electrical demand of the campus from a LT to HT connection. Similarly all other old service lines were scrapped and new lines were laid.

Facade design is one of the most important components of the architecture of any building. The façade, while providing the aesthetic skin for the structure also needs to bring in adequate sunlight into the building in order to reduce the use of artificial light during the day.  It also needs to cut heat entering the building so as to reduce air conditioning costs. The building has an interesting composition of staggered vertical panels with ceramic frit glass which help in breaking up the monotony large facade panels . all four sides have scattered rectangular projections with different glass composition with framework inspired by Piet Mondrian’s geometric compositions.

By removing the opaque walls on all the sides of the building, the occupants are exposed to fantastic views of the tree cover all around, Vidhana Soudha and Heritage Daly Memorial Hall. The glass used in the building looks different at various times of the day. The reflection of the adjacent Heritage Daly Memorial hall on the glass of this building brings out a surreal image of coexisting, contrasting architecture built exactly  a century apart.