perforated calligraphic panels clad mix-use tower emerging from mumbai’s cityscape

studio symbiosis enhances the monotonous urban landscape and merges the old and new with organic sweeping ACP screens.

ravail khan October 25, 2022 3 min

studio symbiosis unveils id origins headquarters

Amid the dense urban fabric of southern Mumbai, India, Studio Symbiosis revitalizes the ID Origins Headquarters with a mixed-use expansion and an organically sweeping geometric facade. As a new visual marker of the city the project enhances the low-rise Dudhwala Complex built in the 1980s, adding twelve new residential floors atop the original six floor office structure. Uniting the two dichotomous volumes, the facade is retrofitted with undulating aluminium composite panels (ACPs) weaving in delicate calligraphic strokes that merge the old and new into one cohesive frontage while transforming the monotonous urban environment.

perforated calligraphic panels clad mix-use tower by studio symbiosis emerging from mumbai’s cityscape — all images courtesy Studio Symbiosis

undulating acp panels fuse mix-use activities

Taking advantage of the ID Origins Headquarters’ location at the heart of a bustling townscape, Studio Symbiosis injects mixed-use activities into the existing commercial structure, augmenting it with twelve additional residential levels above. A load-transferring girder connects the two volumes while additional protruding peripheral columns have been added to support the structure from the ground up. Integrating the two strata and concealing the new misaligned structural elements, the architectural team devised a distinctive rhythmic facade feature that accentuates the tower’s verticality as it emerges from the monotonous urban landscape.

Parallel perforated ACP screens sweep along the glazed exterior in organic V-shaped strokes, which gradually wane as they ascend the structure. Openable glazing is inset between the cladding panels on the upper volume, while fixed curtain glazing homogenizes the office facade. The ACP elements maintain wide roots at the base, reducing solar glare and providing optimum lux levels along the commercial levels, while tapering along the residential floors to maximize panoramic views of the cityscape for inhabitants. With a planar profile and lightweight materiality, the undulating panels allowed for flexible construction altogether, reducing costs, and time of execution, by six months.

elevating mumbai’s urban landscape

This rehabilitation project extends beyond the structure and into the dense urban fabric of Mumbai. The new facade enhances the encompassing landscape, creating a visual and functional locus for the site spanning over 12 acres of land. Further, Studio Symbiosis rerouted the entrances and exits to decongest the entrance road, uplifting the pedestrian walkways in the vicinity of the site, dissolving the site boundary, and creating an urban lobby that becomes a part of the Mumbai streetscape.