SYNOPSIS

AR. ROMI KHOSLA

1. AIM:
➢ TO STUDY AND ANALYSE THE PROCESS OF DESING AND THE WORK
EVOLVES AS A RESPONSE TO THE PARTICULAR CHARACTER OF
EACH PROGRAM,SITE,AND BUDGET.

➢ TO EMPHASISE THE INTEGERITY OF MATERIAL AND

CRAFTSMANSHIP,ESTABLISHING A FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND ARCHITECTURE ENVIRONMENT

➢ TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF ARCHITECTURE,

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

2. OBJECTIVE:
➢ TO UNDERSTAND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE ARCHITECT

➢ ANALYZING THE CONCEPT AND CULTURE BEHIND HIS HOUGHTS.

➢ TO EXPLORE HIS WORKS.

➢ TO STUDY THE WHOLE COURSE OF ACTION BEHIND HIS TEAM WORK

3. LIMITATION OF STUDY:

➢ THE STUDY WILL EMPHASISE ON DIFFERENT STYLES AND DIFFERENT

FUNCTIONAL BUILDINGS LIKE INSTITUTE ,CAFÉ ETC.
4. RATIONALE:

➢ THE ARCHITECT IS KNOWN FOR HIS SUSTAINABLE DESINGS AND

URBAN DESINGING.

➢ HIS SPASTICS SCHOOL DESING IS ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLE OF POST

MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

➢ HE IS ASLO KNOWN FOR IS HOSPITAL DESINGING.

5. METHODOLOGY:
❖ RESEARCH WORK

➢ STUDY ABOUT THE TOPIC AND ITS IMPORTANCE

➢ COLLECTION OF DATA FROM ARTICLES, INTERNET , BOOKS ETC

➢ FORMULATION OF AIM ,OBJECTIVE,SCOPE AND LIMITATION.

❖ CASE STUDY

➢ LITERATURE STUDY FROM THE INTERNET

➢ INTERVIEV

6. SCOPE:

➢ TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

➢ FUNCTIONALITY OF HOSPITAL ARCHITECTURE

➢ POST MODERN ARCHITECTURE

CHAPTER – 1
INTRODUCTION:

Romi Khosla Design

Studios New Delhi
www.rk-ds.com/
+ 91.11.41730173
C-9, Maharani Bagh,
New Delhi, India

Mr. Romi Khosla is an Indian architect who received a B.A. in economics

from the University of Cambridge, and qualified as an architect at the
Architectural Association, London. Mr. Khosla founded GRUP (Group for
Rural and Urban Planning) in Delhi in 1974, and has designed a number
of large institutional complexes as well as small community-based rural
projects.
His recent work includes developmental and revitalisation projects for
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Central Asia,
Tibet, and Egypt, and for the Government of India in the Himalayan
belt.
Mr. Khosla's published works include Buddhist Monasteries in Western
Himalayas (1979). He served as professional advisor for the Aga Khan
Trust for Culture's International Competition for Ideas on the
Revitalisation of Samarkand. Mr. Khosla was a member of the Award
Technical Review for the 1986, 1989, and 1992 cycles.
CHAPTER -2 THE SPASTIC
CHILDREN SCHOOL:
• The first custom-design school for physically challenged
children was initiated by funds made available from the
British government which supported a local NGO.
• The school is designed for 500 handicapped children and
providesnot only specialized facilities and training. But also
courses for the parents of handicapped children
• Romi Khosla’s design of the School for Spastic Children
with its use of abstract forms is regarded as a classic
example of post-modern architecture in India.
• The architect’s concern was to create a secure world for
children with special needs.
• The structure is well secured and almost fort like, a
building which has often been compared to a mother’s
womb.
• While developing his design,Khosla also visualised a ship
with many decks; the numerous balconies in the building
came out of this idea.
• He deliberately did not set aside any spaces for a specific
function and
sought a building where movement was easy and space
expansive.
• Attention was also paid to the students’conveniences with
every two classrooms having an adjacent toilet.
• With specially designed ramps and natural light penetrating
into the building, the architect not only provided for a
comfort zone for the children but also expressed his love
of iconography in a poetic manner.
SITE PLAN:
FLOOR PLANS:
FRONT ELEVATION
 CHAPTER-3 JAMIA DENTAL COLLEGE:

CONCEPT:
• There is something special about teaching hospitals that make
them different from other institutions. The Dental College of
Jamia had these characteristics. It serves to provide dental care
to the people in surrounding areas and is also one of the
primary teaching centres of Dentistry in India. So at one end
the users are the common public and at the other end the users
are the medical students.
• The College was therefore a place where three users interacted
with each other. The common public, the doctors who treated
and taught and thirdly the students who learned and practiced.
• The building was conceived by the architects Romi Khosla and
Martand Khosla to be a contemporary building without
references to the historical burden of architecture from which
much of the Jamia buildings suffer. Like their Castro Cafeteria
and M.F. Hussain Art Gallery on the Jamia University Campus,
the architects have sought to provide the image of Jamia with a
modern state of the Art Campus
• The programme was therefore conceived as a series of
capsules which were designed to act as nodes for the three
users.
REQUIREMENTS
To fulfill the requirements of its varied users the building was to
house a substantial reference library, staff facilities, seminar
facilities, wards, operation theatres, pathology laboratories, a
mortuary as well as X-Ray rooms and a Museum.

• PLANNING
• The facilities have been arranged in a rectilinear
plan form that encloses two large courtyards and
has a certain formality to it.
• It was a design judgement to simplify the formal
layout of the building in order to contain the
enormous volumes of spaces in a simple form that
would be easily readable by all three categories of
users.
• Adental college is a very complex institution in
which the users have to keep moving from one part
to another. Combine this with the special use
requirements of the students, their canteen, the
teaching staff, the reference library etc; it was
imperative to simplify the plan form of the building
to make it readable to the constant stream of new
first users who would keep flowing into the
building.
• In order to further reduce energy consumption,
the treatment clinics have been provided with
full 80%north side glazing that allows ample
daylight to flood the clinics. This helps the
treatment during power cutsand
• natural light spaces ensure a higher level of
cleanliness.
 ELEVATION

• Each façade of the building is treated as a canvas for artistic composition.

The fenestration has been designed to have twin functions. On the north
faces of the building, where the clinics have been located, the structural
curtain wall glazing provides enormous daylight for dental treatment. So
instead of the dentist twisting and turning angle poise lamps into the
patient face and dreading a power cut, the doctor can rely on
daylight to illuminate the patient’s condition. On the south side, the
glazing has been confined to narrowslits which run horizontally and
protect the south of the building in the clinic areas from heat gain. These
staggered fenestrations also break the scale and the thin strips of
windows help in exaggerating the horizontality of the structure

MATERIALS
Walls:
Brick walls with ACP & Stone Cladding. Curtain wall glazing on the North façade
& Glass brick in filled in steel frame for corridors
Floor:
Kota stone is the hardest locally available stone. Its slabs have been used for
flooring, skirting,dado, risers of steps etc. keeping in view the high expected
usability of thebuilding.
Structure:
Steel & RCC composite structure
CHAPTER - 4
 BUILDING BLOCK
• The building block has a kitchen block to the
east, which is a fully enclosed space to cook and
serve in. As One walks along the length of the
building westwards, initially the eating
enclosure is defined by two walls and a roof,
further still the sense of interior is defined by
one wall and the roof, further still the space is
articulated by only one wall, and yet further
still, there is only the floor, and then that
toostops continuing.
• Throughout this changing sense of interior and
exterior, the eating surface and the seating
surfaces continue, almost acting like stitches
that tie thisentire space together.
• The idea was to try and blur the boundaries
between inside and outside, where these
undefined boundaries act as a negotiator
between the user and the climate of Delhi.
• All the elements of the building are defined
distinctly and independent from each other.
The walls don’t touch the floor and the roof
does not touch thewalls.
• This was the first steel building built at the
university campus.
• The roof is made of perforated aluminium
sheets, and
the walls are cladded with waste marble strips.
CONCEPT

• A Cafeteria in a University
Campus located near
Auditorium, Cultural Center,
Mass communication, was
expected to become hub of all
social activities of the Campus.
• Due to the extreme climatic
conditions of New Delhi,
where the summer sees
temperatures of above 45
degrees centigrade, and the
winters often see
temperatures below 5 degree
centigrade..
• Most student canteens in India
are not air-conditioned, and
are often poorly ventilated,
making them very hot and
oppressive in the summer and
very cold in the winters.

• The design is truly unique

and contemporary and we
feel, will herald a new age of
Architecture for the
University.
• This canteen was proposed as a
‘Semi open air
Café’. This allowed to have an
ambient temperature for most of
the year along with good
ventilation, and a variety of
degrees of shade from the
climate
CHAPTER – 5
VOLVO- EICHER CORPORATE
HEADQUATER:
➢ This building is one of the very few buildings in India to have
received a LEED platinum rating for its commitment to
sustainable and green design.
➢ For the design of the corporate headquarters of the newly
formed joint venture between Volvo and Eicher, we were given a
brief to design a building that was a path breaker in terms of
architecture, engineering, and the highest level of Sustainable
green architecture.

➢ The building should have within it spaces that are completely

democratic and enable social interaction between varied
departments and encourages informal meeting spaces as venues
of new thought.
➢ The design of the building consists of two interlinked cubes
made almost entirely of glass and steel, placed to the east and
west of a central circulation core that is anchored with a 6
storey high spiral suspended steel staircase.

➢ The ground floor consists of the main reception, the cafeteria,

informal meeting zone as well as an exhibition space and some
meeting rooms for outside visitors. The first floor is a single
largest work space in the building above which on the second
floor are all the senior management cabins and meeting
rooms, all of which overlook rooftop gardens.

➢ The three floors above this are all column free work spaces
and on the top floor is a series of terrace gardens, the main
company board room and two large offices. There is a two level
basement for parking and service equipment.
 CHAPTER – 6
INTERVIEW:

Romi Khosla, an alumnus of

Cambridge University UK and
Architectural Association London
is widely known for design of
various educational as well as
recreational complexes. The Aga
Khan Award winner architect.

What do you think about Environmental Sustainability?

➢ Sustainability is a very important concept. For Indians, and

indeed for all who inhabit the sub-continent, the way of seeing
the world around us has always emphasised sustainability, self-
sufficiency and minimizing waste.

➢ These concerns are deeply embedded in our cultural values.

Therefore when scientists warn us about the impending
disasters that may occur in this century due to environmental
crimes being committed, such findings make a lot of sense to
Indians who have always regarded the environment as
something that is alive as a force around us and needs the
respect given to devtas.
Volvo-Eicher Corporate Headquarters?

➢ We have been extremely surprised and equally delighted

by the NDTV award for this building.

➢ Our surprise is explained by the observation that we

architects are aware that the media, the government as
well as the universities are generally disinterested in
design and architecture.

➢ Therefore for a major T.V. Channel to award prizes for

design and architecture gives me great hope. May be it
signals the beginning of a new awakening for the rulers of
our country about the aesthetic importance of our cities
and how they are built.

Indian Architecture

➢ The phases of modern architecture developing in India

have taken our buildings from colonial influences to
corporate influences.
➢ The very discipline of architecture is a colonial inheritance
in India in which the architect is regarded as something of
a superman who knows the needs of people for whose
good he designs
➢ It is for this reason that the patrons of architecture has totally
ignored the needs of the poor in India who form a majority of
the population of the country. Now we have reached a
situation where the government has outsourced slum
rehabilitation to the builders.
➢ So architects still ignored as monetary values over shadow
our cultural and human values. The signature buildings of
tomorrows India are going to be the Sustainable Corporate
buildings, not the ones that provide rehabilitation to the poor.
Books

➢ I have edited one book and authored some more. The

subjects are very diverse as are my concerns. The book on
‘The Idea of Delhi’ was edited for Marg in which i had some
major contributions about how, when colonial Delhi was
conceived, ideas were important for architects. That was a
very different situation from to-day when cost and compliance
is expected from architects.
➢ My other book on the Future ‘The Loneliness of the long
Distant Future’ was written to share my experiences in the
global architectural context and how very few people are
interested in the long term future.

➢ People who think about the future and want to do something

about improving it are generally lonely Other books I have
written are about ‘Natural Cities’ and about Birds in a small
area of Dharamsala, but these are highly specialised books for
a narrow band of informed readers.

Any words of wisdom for youngsters starting out today?

➢ Invent your own future. Design your life around it. If the
design of your life is unique you will become a unique
architect.
What’s your favourite Project?

➢ My favourite projects are those that inspire wonder inside me

when i visit them. Sometimes they are historical like Humayun’s
Tomb which I regard as an early product of globalisation where
the Central Asians brought us a building typology that was
unbelievable at the time-the scale, the spans, the cladding, the
relationship to Landscape.

➢ Another project that inspires wonder inside me is the

International Centre by stein. Its entire system of construction
and its detailing fill you win wonder at their innovation.
Inevitably one’s own projects become favourites too such as the
Castro Cafe in Jamia and the Volvo-Eicher Corporate Building.

However, if you were to ask me what is my favourite activity then i

would have to confess that my favourite activity is designing for
competitions which one has no intention to win.

➢ This is because such an activity is about engaging with the

purity of architecture, with the dream of architecture, with the
future of architecture, with the limits of architecture, with the
possibility and potential of architecture.

Engaging in such activity cleanses one as would a dip in the Ganga

before returning back to the mediocrity of our times.
What are the Challenges faced by you so far as an
architect?

➢ The greatest challenge I face as an architect is to build a

building that remains consistent to my design ideas.

➢ Architecture involves team work and heavy inputs from

the users and project managers. So when i design a
building, I face the same challenge that a cat faces when
you try and catch her in a room.

➢ I leap from argument to argument, from defence to

defence, from modification to modification, desperately
trying to save my design idea. The bigger the idea the
harder it is to save it.

➢ No matter how much you jump and run, the client, the
project manager, the contractor and the budget is
eventually going to throw a sack on your idea and carry it
off for rehabilitation.