VVIP Circuit House 1, Pune
Architect: Sunil Patil and Associates
Citation Note:
The VVIP Circuit House is a public project executed with the government as a patron and client. With very few examples of good civic architecture built with the patronage of the government, this circuit house ventures to push the envelope on sophistication of design and standard of execution bringing the conversation on good public work to fore.
Built around a courtyard, the structure uses a combination of solar passive devices and technological interventions to control and measurably reduce the energy consumption levels of the building without compromising on the luxury expectations from a building of this nature.
The architects have attempted to introduce a new vocabulary in this typology through use of materials and ideas of transparency, lightness and clarity of structure. An argument is made for layering the building façades with screens and architectonic devices that help shade the skin. The structure is well detailed and ordered with the courtyard becoming a space that connects the public functions in an inward-looking plan.
With a great deficit of good design thinking in civic buildings in India, this project raises the bar for architecture specifically in dealing with this typology – a program that is largely absent from the preoccupations of contemporary architecture in India and therefore, the VVIP Circuit House 1 by Sunil Patil and Associates in Pune is a citation project for The Merit List.
