Health Care | Institutional
KJ Somiaya Medical College
Historically, Medical colleges have been planned on large campuses with the foresight of growth of the college and its larger network of institutions and their future needs. The Somaiya Ayurvihar Campus is a 90 acre land parcel located in Mumbai’s Sion area along the Eastern Express highway which is one of the gateways in the city. With very few buildings being developed on ground currently, the new medical college would have to cluster itself around facilities with shared purposes.
The envisioned master plan suggests there is a transformation of the campus underway and any new architectural intervention would have to adhere to the larger goals and directions of the master plan.
Isometric view of medical college
Medical colleges traditionally have a strong relationship to the medical Hospital that forms a live training field and quasi laboratory for students learning in an environment with practical case knowledge. Medical colleges also need ancillary support programs such as student accommodation with recreational facilities. Hence, the logical location for the College was one between the student hostels and the medical hospital. The medical college hence, was envisioned as a space that allows for uninterrupted student movement through the building, a place for students to pause around it’s plaza for chance social interactions.
Ground floor plan
The plaza is defined and derived by two majestic omni presence Banyan trees at the site and form markers on the movement journey of the students and faculty. The trees are also referenced as a shared cultural heritage of learning ‘under a tree’ for the student body of the past and present. Further, programs of culture in the form of an amphitheater, leisure in the form of a café and canteen are curated along the student journey. In essence, the ‘Plaza is a destination along a manifold of journeys’ in the healthcare cluster of the Ayurvihar campus.
The Plaza
The vertical stacking of the building allows for various voids around the building mass in the form of overlooking deck and voids. The form also steps back to allow for terrace gardens that provide relief for spaces such as libraries and faculty offices. The green terraces form a soft relation with the sky and create a cooling microclimate that also acts as a solar buffer to mitigate heat loads on the building.
Section through the plaza
The single loaded corridors around the plaza on all floors are connected with twin straight flight stairs that allow for dynamic movement and visual connections across the floors of learning programs such as Laboratories and lecture rooms. The suspended Library over the plaza creates a sense of floatation and lightness at the higher levels of the building.
Gallery
