Club 1
A five-storeyed residential apartment building in upmarket Boat Club, Chennai was designed on a tight site of 980 sqm, with offsets of 3 m on all sides. The strategy was to shade the building by providing a ‘breathable ventilated rainscreen’ skin to wrap around the building. The façade integrates the windows and
openings with a ribbed GFRC skin to form a seamless blend of aluminium, glass and concrete.
Location
Size
Chennai
2,750 sqm
2024
SHADING STRATEGIES
The strategy was to design the building envelope to be self-shading, insulating and breathable. Owing to the concrete structure being 350 mm wide, there was an opportunity to provide a GFRC skin to wrap around the building leaving a 150 mm wide air cavity to insulate the inner walls. This is treated as a rain screen with the joinery opening junctions carefully protected using customised aluminium jambs and flashings.
The GFRC panels are ribbed in such a manner that the corrugations of the panel act as self-shading elements. The ribs are a combination of vertical and inclined at 45 degrees to allow the rainwater to flow down without any hinderance. This forms a pattern that feels dynamic, casting interesting shadows.
