Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Leadership

The BHAU institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership is one of the academic buildings on the campus of the College of Engineering – Pune, on a 0.4 acre plot of land adjacent to the Mula River. The form and design developed as an outcome of the site limitations and client brief. Within the building, the circulation space had to be kept to a minimum with ample natural light and ventilation through all the spaces. The land originally had been the only large space on a congested college campus and was the only area from where students and faculty could watch the annual sailing regatta on the river. The new structure had to accommodate these activities apart from the academic requirements. The building was required to have a small footprint to allow for vehicular movement around the building. There is also a tamarind tree in the middle of the property that had to be left undisturbed. Keeping this in mind we developed a circular footprint. This kept the circulation areas to a minimum and opened out the building towards the river through a courtyard. The grassy landscape remained for the students to sit by the river and the metal bridge at the upper level serves as a viewing gallery. The ball-like form developed as an answer to the requirement for a smaller footprint for the circulation around the building and also to accommodate the stepped lecture halls within an efficient volume. In keeping with our ideology – we have used natural material, the two-way curved structural shells in concrete are clad with exposed brick. The horizontal beams have taken the texture from the corrugated sheet shuttering and all the floors are laid with fine grained limestone from Kota. We take great pride in the design of the structure, the curved planes have worked well for the acoustics of the lecture halls while the curved fenestration on the sides bring in the natural light and air without bringing in the distractions of the outside world.