For Contemporary Urban one of the most difficult buildings to execute was the Jewel Tech factory in Seepz, Mumbai, where they have managed to rigorously maintain, and manifest a conceptual purity. The jewellery business is very traditional and security and surveillance are paramount. Architect Kapil Gupta introduced a surveillance space which did not require the staff to be constantly subjected to inhumane body searches; the surveillance corridor itself fulfilled that function. The glass canyon lets light into the heart of the building, while allowing for a visually impermeable exterior. You cannot enter or exit the building through this space, but have to traverse through it to access any department of the factory. Movement becomes very visible, and hence monitored. The suspended staircases within this space are constructed in steel, so that every footfall is acoustically registered.
