Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Bangalore, India · 1977–1992 (Multiple Phases)
Photo · Photo courtesy of VSF
A masterclass in passive solar design and monumental scale, showing how overhead pergolas can be used to temper harsh sunlight into dynamic, graphic shadow patterns within semi-outdoor institutional corridors.
- What we like about this project
- The way the straight lines of the overhead pergola warp into perfect semi-circular bands of light as they wrap around the cylindrical columns.
Materials
- concrete
- stone-masonry
- timber-pergola
Visual identifiers
- pergola-shadows
- cylindrical-columns
- high-contrast-light
- stone-walls
- semi-outdoor-corridor
Style tags
- brutalist
- modernist
- regionalist
Visual tags
- brutalist
- tropical-modernism
- light-and-shadow
- monumental
- passive-cooling
- colonnade
- Geometry
- A series of deep, parallel concrete beams or pergola slats overhead, supported by massive cylindrical columns and rough-hewn stone masonry walls.
- Facade system
- Open-air colonnade with integrated overhead shading trellis.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete frame with load-bearing stone masonry infill.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental, double-height transitional space with oversized columns and deep overhead spans.
- Lighting
- Intense, direct tropical sunlight filtered through an overhead pergola, casting high-contrast, graphic zebra-stripe shadows across columns and walls.
- Atmosphere
- Dramatic, quiet, and coolly shaded, defined by the rhythmic play of brilliant light and deep shadow.
- Environmental context
- An open-air, shaded institutional corridor designed for a hot, dry climate.
- Spatial experience
- Walking through a semi-outdoor corridor where the boundary between interior and exterior is blurred by a dramatic, shifting pattern of light and shadow.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong repeating horizontal lines of the pergola contrast with the verticality of the massive columns and the stepped shadow patterns.
- Style reading
- Indian Modernism / Brutalism
- Program
- Educational / Institutional campus
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- concrete, stone-masonry, timber-pergola
- Visual identifiers
- pergola-shadows, cylindrical-columns, high-contrast-light, stone-walls, semi-outdoor-corridor
- Style tags
- brutalist, modernist, regionalist
- Visual tags
- brutalist, tropical-modernism, light-and-shadow, monumental, passive-cooling, colonnade
- Geometry
- A series of deep, parallel concrete beams or pergola slats overhead, supported by massive cylindrical columns and rough-hewn stone masonry walls.
- Facade system
- Open-air colonnade with integrated overhead shading trellis.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete frame with load-bearing stone masonry infill.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental, double-height transitional space with oversized columns and deep overhead spans.
- Lighting
- Intense, direct tropical sunlight filtered through an overhead pergola, casting high-contrast, graphic zebra-stripe shadows across columns and walls.
- Atmosphere
- Dramatic, quiet, and coolly shaded, defined by the rhythmic play of brilliant light and deep shadow.
- Environmental context
- An open-air, shaded institutional corridor designed for a hot, dry climate.
- Spatial experience
- Walking through a semi-outdoor corridor where the boundary between interior and exterior is blurred by a dramatic, shifting pattern of light and shadow.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong repeating horizontal lines of the pergola contrast with the verticality of the massive columns and the stepped shadow patterns.
- Style reading
- Indian Modernism / Brutalism
- Program
- Educational / Institutional campus
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture