IMPERIAL TOWER ( HAFEEZ CONTRACTOR)

Imperial Tower is a 116-story residential building next to two existing towers in Mumbai,
India. At 400 meters, it will be one of the Mumbai's tallest building, and will serve as a
prototype for future tall towers in this densely developed but currently low-rise city. The
tower's form is distinguished by sensuous curves,
lush skygardens and a highperformance, highly reflective exterior wall. The
aerodynamic shape of the tower is designed to
confuse the wind, minimizing negative effects of
wind action on the building;
the skygardens also help break up wind vortexes
around the building. The terraces also function as
beautiful amenities for building occupants, providing
access to light
and views and a strong connection with the natural
world in a manner atypical for Mumbai. The exterior
wall provides a strong visual contrast with the heavy
masonry cladding
of
most surrounding buildings; the wall system is also
highly sustainable, blocking solar heat gain and
diffusing direct sunlight in the city's hot, humid
climate. Other sustainable
features include grey water collection and re-use
systems, high-efficiency MEP systems, a green wall
podium and the use of native plants throughout the
landscaping.
The 76,000-square-meter tower features 132 luxury residential units, whose interiors were
designed by AIA Chicago.

KANCHANJUNGHA APARTMENT ( CHARLS CORREA)

By developing climatic solutions for different sites and programs, Indian architect Charles Correa designed
the Kanchanjunga Apartments. Located in Mumbai, the U.S. equivalent of New York City in terms of
population and diversity, the 32 luxury apartments are located south-west of downtown in an upscale
suburban setting embodying the characteristics of the upper echelon of society within the community. The
Kanchanjunga Apartments are a direct response to the present culture, the escalating urbanization, and the
climatic conditions for the region. They pay homage to the vernacular architecture that once stood on the
site before the development in a number of ways. More on Kanchanjunga Apartments after the break.
In Mumbai, a building has to be oriented east-west to catch prevailing sea breezes and to open up the best
views of the city. Unfortunately, these are also the directions of the hot sun and the heavy monsoon rains.
The old bungalows solved these problems by wrapping a protective layer of verandas around the main
living areas, thus providing the occupants with two lines of defense against the elements.
Correa pushed his capacity for ingenious cellular planning to the limit, as is evident from the interlock of
four different apartment typologies varying from 3 to 6 bedrooms each. Smaller displacements of level were
critical in this work in that they differentiated between the external earth filled terraces and the internal
elevated living volumes. These subtle shifts enable Correa to effectively shield these high rise units from
the effects of both the sun and monsoon rains. This was largely achieved by providing the tower with

relatively deep, garden verandas, suspended in the air. Clearly, such an arrangement had its precedent in
the cross-over units of Le Corbusiers Unite d Habitation built in Marseilles in 1952, although here in
Mumbai the sectional provision was achieved without resorting to the extreme of differentiating between upand-down goThe building is a 32 story reinforced concrete structure with 6.3m cantilevered open terraces.
The central core is composed of lifts and provides the main structural element for resisting lateral loads.
The central core was constructed ahead of the main structure by slip method of construction. This
technique was used for the first time in India for a multistory building.
The concrete construction and large areas of white panels bears a strong resemblance to modern
apartment buildings in the West, perhaps due to Correas western education. However, the garden terraces
of the Kanchanjunga Apartments are actually a modern interpretation of a feature of the traditional Indian
bungalow: the veranda.