Raipur, Chattisgarh, India
Indian architect Sanjay Puri and his design team complete an impressive, linear office building inspired by traditional Indian courtyard houses, creating a large landscaped courtyard within it.
Named The Courtyard Office, the project has recently been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Varying from two to four levels sectionally, the office floors are lifted from the ground at the southwest and northeast sides to facilitate a south-westerly breeze through the courtyard.
The northeast and northwest corners of the building are also lifted, creating singular large volumes at both ends to allow visual contact between floors, where a cafeteria and a library are housed.
The circulation spine skirts the internal courtyard, allowing the landscape to be visible while moving through the office and the work areas, skirting the external periphery opening towards external gardens.
The building shape generates its longest sides oriented towards the north, with angled louvers on the other faces directing the internal spaces northwards.
The orientation allows indirect light throughout the day into all of the internal spaces, rendering the building energy efficient.
The courtyard office derives its principles from traditional Indian courtyard houses, resulting in office spaces that vary in volume and orientation, allowing open spaces to be integrated with enclosed ones, and creating energy-efficient workspaces.
Project: The Courtyard Office
Architects: Sanjay Puri Architects
Lead Designer: Sanjay Puri
Design Team: Ruchika Gupta, Dayita Kurvey, Prajakta Panchal, and Samantha Fernand
General Contractor: Shree Cement Ltd.
Client: Shree Cement Ltd.
Photographers: Dinesh Mehta