Hostels can be painfully drab living and DCOOP knew right from the start that this project will have to attempt to change that. To flip the tradition, architects Quaid Doongerwala and Shilpa Ranade decided to give the students of Y. V. University lessons in “swivels”, “hollows”, “slides” and “stacks”. The room blocks here are modular and they join in to the main grid of the structure.
There are columns galore in the blocks, making sure that the floors are dotted with impetuous shadows. There are canopied overhanging structures and terraces that afford great views of the surroundings.
But stylistic pizzazz aside, the building has also been shaped by great sensitivity to the weather conditions of the city of Cudappah. The team was well aware of the lean resources for the project worked consciously to build sweeps of open sociable spots for the students. But is the cherry on the cake is the jaali work – sweeps of stout concrete that form sloping patterns of symmetry and slice sunlight into enigmatic shadows on the floor.
