Akshay Raheja of the R Raheja Group wanted to build 76 South Avenue, an upmarket apartment at Santacruz in Mumbai as a hallmark of forward-looking architecture which would exude his personality of a young and dynamic builder.
‘He wanted a building which would sort of look ahead of its time, not just in terms of colour, but even materiality, method of construction etc.’, says Kayzad Shroff of Shroffleon who designed the building.
Hence, Kayzad opted for not so commonly used, Aludecor’s Zinc Composite Panel as one of the cladding materials. 2300 sq. m. of Aludecor’s ZCP – which is manufactured in collaboration with VMZinc – was used in the project that gives the building an extraordinary appearance. ZCP is very environment-friendly and can have a lifetime of 100 years. It’s is a self-healing material as it naturally develops a protective layer of zinc carbonate or patina as it ages.
‘It’s a product that does not require a lot of maintenance. It weathers pretty well…It’s even very eco-friendly’, says Kayzad. In terms of construction the fact that the panels could be prefabricated and directly installed onto the façade, makes the building look well engineered.
The structure had come up much before the construction of the façade got started. The engineering of the façade which has multiple layers of zinc, high-pressure laminates and sliding folding window systems, all of which had to be fit within 3.5 or 4-inch wall section, posed a lot of challenges for which Kayzad had to work very closely with the façade consultant. The fact that the client was ready to go the whole hog made things easy according to Kayzad.
‘This kind of system takes more time, energy and money. If we opted for a traditional system the project would have been over probably a year ago. But the client supported us and wanted a building which would speak about his vision of looking to the future,’ says Kayzad.
A beautiful enigma was created by working out a non-repetitive pattern. Despite having repetitive floor plates in the building, the idea was to create an envelope that would not reflect exactly what went behind it.
Says Kayzad: ‘the system that we have created allows for flexibility within the façade itself. That’s why you don’t have a repetitive set of windows or solid elements; it’s all staggered because of which you get a varied feel and it does not give you a very traditional looking building facade.’
Having the different elements in the building like zinc of two different shades, Fundermax, French doors, sunshades etc. at different levels posed quite a challenge according to Karan Thakur, the director of Almech Facades who executed the design. And it’s a small compound too.
‘On every floor, there is an offset between different elements. So it was very critical to work out every element of the correct size, to go in the correct place, in order to achieve the final outcome’, says Karan.
In terms of FSI and height restrictions, Mumbai offered its own set of challenges. Says Kayzad: ‘No developer here is going to allow you to waste 
even 10 sq. ft. per floor plate for aesthetic reasons. In addition to that, the plan needs to be extremely efficient. By that I mean there shouldn’t be any wasted corridor, any nooks, and crannies which are not really usable.’
The project had a permissible setback which led to a particular area of the floor plate. And there was a particular height restriction as well, making it a very tight sort of project to work on. ‘We were very clear that we did not want a building with any protrusions. For a plot of this size and a building of this scale to have any sort of architectural relevance it needed to have a clear form,’ says Kayzad.
Thus, Kayzad didn’t want elements jutting out for ducts or rooms or kitchens or toilets. A rectangular envelope was created and the team played within it keeping in mind the regulations for duct sizes based on the size of the toilet abutting it.
In the interior, Schuco System has been used for sliding folding and French doors. To prevent anyone from falling off from the 9 feet high doors, railings have been provided. To avoid any disturbance in the view when the doors are open, a seamless railing system has been used. Also to avoid sun glare sunshades have been provided above every door.
The whole team behind the 76 South Avenue building faced the challenges head on, and that paid dividends in the form a very admirable architecture in the end.
