SKY COURTS

The site is located along an arterial city road which earlier housed industries and textile mills.
A decade ago, all these mills were relocated and the entire area is undergoing a rapid transformation with high-rise residential and commercial buildings, in close proximity.
Since the immediate surroundings are very dense with buildings that will eventually look into each other, the entire plan is created with large open spaces within each house into which all the rooms open.
Imbibing the traditional Indian courtyard, each apartment has a series of courts interspersed with rooms that alternate varyingly at each level.
Every room is cross ventilated within each apartment allowing the South-West breeze prevalent in the city all through the year to facilitate natural ventilation and create energy efficient spaces.
A 4 level parking podium elevates the garden to a higher level than the flyover and busy arterial road fronting the site. The rooftop is designed as a landscaped space with a pool.
A rectilinear block in conformity with the site setbacks rises up, fragmenting as it does, creating parking spaces before transforming into a monolithic vertical mass with deep punctuations.
Enclosed and semi enclosed volumes shift on each floor creating different houses on each level allowing the building to have an organic character while being a high-rise structure and contrasting with the repetitive character of the vertical buildings in the vicinity.
The design seeks to create a building that despite its small size in comparison to the surrounding developments, yet allows its residents the luxury of landscaped gardens as extensions to the internal spaces at each level and for every room, maximizing on natural light and air.
Every room of every apartment opens into twenty-four feet high landscaped terraces facilitating abundant natural light, cross ventilation and openness.
A complex section involving four variations makes this possible interspersing landscaped courts with living spaces all through the vertical height of the building.
The design illustrates how a small building in a high density neighbourhood can yet generate open spaces equivalent to its plot size creating a villa like feel for each of its residents.
Designed contextually to its site surroundings & the climate of Mumbai city, Sky Courts can serve to become an example of generating open areas in a city starred for them.