Sangam

Project Name: Sangam
Authors: Alkesh Gangwal & Associates

CITATION

Industrial contexts can be challenging to design within, especially for structures that are meant not for manufacturing or processing, but for human interaction and congregation. Designed as a dining space for employees of the industrial setup, Sangam employs an industrial design language but pivots towards an architecture of community.

Drawing from the vocabulary of the built landscape, the structure is composed of two complementing and opposing parts in constant tension. The brick composition grounds the project through its use for the communion area as the kitchen, a place for heat and fire. In contrast, the light shed brings in the large volume, along with the necessary transparency and permeability for the dining area.

While the visually heavy brick composition creates an opaque enclosure, the seemingly floating white-box bleeds light, enabling views of the landscape from the sitting height. The earthbound and the fragile are composed in an equilibrium. The architectural detailing ensures care and sophistication are employed in the service of a comfortable, well-lit community dining space for all workers.

Dotting the industrial landscapes of India are innumerable factories and units that employ a large populace of workers who, in turn, spend a large part of their lives in an industrial environment. This structure demonstrates the ability of architecture to render quality and dignity to the many supplementary activities that bring moments of joy and relaxation for the workers. This project, made with restraint, maturity and sensitivity, is able to raise the quality of everyday interaction, simultaneously achieving the fine tectonic quality and sophistication in design, and therefore, Sangam by Alkesh Gangwal & Associates is awarded a Citation in The Merit List.