PLUS

LOCATION: Panchkula, Haryana, India PROJECT OVERVIEW: Plus is a mixed-use building designed to meet the diverse spatial needs of a pharmaceutical company—integrating storage, logistics, offices, and retail space for renting within a cohesive architectural form. Located in Panchkula’s industrial belt, the building ensures operational efficiency while activating the street edge with a large column free retail unit for rental (probably for a car showroom as this area is a hub of car showrooms). The program is vertically zoned: the basement is dedicated to storage, while the lower ground adds more storage, a loading/unloading dock, and a logistics office. The ground floor houses the retail unit that engages with the street; the first floor offers a flexible, open-plan space for future expansion; and the second floor accommodates management offices. Generous floor heights on the ground level allow for potential mezzanine additions (permissible on purchasable FAR). CIRCULATION AND ACCESS: Access points are clearly segregated across the building’s four corners—retail visitors enter from the front left, logistics personnel descend via a stair at the front right, office staff enter from the rear right, and vehicular access to the loading dock is placed at the rear left. ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE: Each of the corner entries is conceived as a subtracted volume. These recesses are enclosed in glass, introducing transparency that act as display frontage, enhancing their visibility from the exterior. The subtractive design logic that defines the ground floor is extended vertically. On the first and second floors, the corners are further recessed to create terrace gardens that offer outdoor relief. These terraces are not merely aesthetic but programmatically sensitive too. On the first floor, they are shielded by solid brick walls to block views of adjacent industrial roof tops. On the second floor, however, the terraces are glazed and left open, offering expansive sky view. The resulting mass forms a three-dimensional ‘+’ or the cross, referencing the pharmaceutical field to the red-cross. Elevated on a plinth, this form lends the building both sculptural quality and industrial-scale presence, while free structural corners maintain spatial openness and emphasize the cross-configuration. MATERIALITY AND DETAILING: Traditional and experimental bonds articulate vertical and horizontal axes of the Cross-shaped mass, adding depth and texture. Brick jaalis introduce porosity for ventilation and soft light. Altogether, the materiality conveys durability, thermal performance, and timelessness, transforming a utilitarian program into a richly detailed architectural experience. The structure inside is a steel framework, to allow for the massive cantilever and a column free internal space.