d+a | Issue 115 • Apr/May 2020

/ COMMERCIAL / 30 THIS INTERESTING, MIXED-USE BUILDING IN INDIA IS A CONTRAST BETWEEN SIMPLE RECTILINEAR GEOMETRY WITH MUTED COLOUR TONES AND A COMPLEX ANGULAR GEOMETRY AWASH WITH COLOUR. STANDOUT STRUCTURE WORDS SASHA GONZALES W hen architect Sanjay Puri was tasked with designing a multi- level, mixed-use building in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, he said that his brief was “very specific”. The client, Dushyant Goswami from the city developer Suvidha Projects, wanted a structure that housed road-facing retail spaces as well as office spaces that measured 400 to 800ft 2 each. The developer also wanted a 5,000ft 2 office for itself and requested for the building to be highly visible and suitable for the site’s location and climate. The resulting construction, Stellar, was completed in 2019 after four years of work. A rectilinear, 110m-long commercial building, it features retail spaces at the lower three levels, and office spaces at the remaining, upper four levels. ALL ABOUT VISIBILITY “The site faces out onto an arterial city road and the client wanted the retail spaces to make full use of the extensive road frontage,” says Puri, who led the project. “In addition, the building was developed for sale, and because retail spaces are generally sold at a much higher price than office spaces, with ground-floor retail spaces being the most 1. The rectilinear commercial building faces out onto an arterial city road and features retail spaces at the lower three levels. 1