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Ashok Leyland Technical Center Styling Studio

Typology

Automobile design studio

Client

Ashok Leyland

Built-up Area

7,157 sq. ft.

Location

Vellivoyalchavadi, Chennai

The new styling studio at the green campus of the technical center of this automobile giant, is a sophisticated, modernist rendition of the surrounding industrial and office buildings. It conforms in character with the contextual buildings, while standing out as a unique statement, signifying the acute difference in the work being carried on inside compared to the rest of the campus. This creative workspace of designers, showcases it’s speciality, by a marked difference from the engineering buildings, in the way it’s Architecture manifests itself to the beholder. A simplistic structure of glass and steel, with a monochromatic palette of shades between snow and charcoal takes up an unassuming presence as seen from the approach road. As a sleek glass box, a certain peculiar feature of seemingly invisible terraces, seem to be floating in front of the linear cuboid. A closer inspection reveals these planes slice into the glass box as if inserted into the skin of the building. A lone tree stands as a sentinel between these planes as a further intrigue, definitely piquing curiosity of the highest order.

Crossing the subtle entry, identified by the completely exposed double height main lobby, the attention is diverted to the eye-catching technical display on the huge blank wall. From here the pitch-dark VR room, discussion room, washrooms, the double height studio with clay modelling and milling areas and office spaces on both floors are accessed through a circulatory passage linking all and the main stair-core. The spaces possess an ethereal quality due to the openness of the design, which relies rather heavily on transparent glass for the demarcation of activities. The significant absence of colour in this otherwise monochromatic glassy spatial maze is also a contributing factor. The ardent worship of the beautiful lush green spread of swaying foliage and the everchanging natural sky and sun-lighting all around is evident and it’s synergy with the restricted Architectural hand elevates the ambience, creating the exact ‘non-space’ – a zone of complete unrestricted freedom viable for nurturing creative ideas. It provides the feeling of solitude in a blissful expansive rolling meadow, ideal for solo pursuits, while also amenable to collaborations in the terraces and the interesting staircases which can double up as seats of interaction with the entities around. The studio proudly shows off floating workspace areas, accessed by floating steps, which are revealed to be the twins to the exterior break-out terraces. The purpose of the singular tree of the façade outside is spotted here, as the surprising integral focus of the studio environment. Timelessness engulfs the visitors and users alike as a paradox in an Architecture which celebrates a totalitarian display of the sun’s rotation, where every hour is seen and felt in all wholesomeness.