Mumbai, october 21 2013 With extensive growth, industrial and commercial development and rapid urbanization, land has developed new versions of landscapes like cityscapes, urban landscapes and rural landscapes. Most places in the world went through this transition associated to the disconnect they experienced in rapid mass development in a planned or mostly unplanned manner that left out nature while construction and built form took over.
These are few examples of conscious planning efforts made time and again by the community and the civic authorities in partnership with the development authorities and various developers and commercial houses to encourage people to congregate and celebrate landscape in an energy rich built environment.
Landscape architecture has various faces in India and is considered to be an ideal time to make improvements and upgrades to the holdings. As important as structural and interior refurbishing can be, a building’s exterior and surrounding property create that all-important first impression. Today, the modest exterior landscaping projects include adding visual, aesthetic and practical dimensions that transform a nondescript commercial property into a handsome and desirable acquisition. For larger facilities, landscape architecture includes redesigning the outdoor parking lots and making the parking area more attractive to passersby and users.
As a city and commercial center of India, Mumbai has grown from spanning a radius of 15 kms and having its commercial center in Fort and Nariman point to many more nodes with time. Worli, BKC, Powai, Andheri, Airoli, being a few prime zones in the corporate sector. As the population and city grows, new residential, commercial and corporate hubs have developed at critical junctions of the city. Similarly expressways and the sea link have bridged the gaps between these three parallel belts.
With a fair deal of support from the planning bodies, developers, corporate and commercial houses have realized the significance of decentralizing from Fort, Mumbai, to these new nodes, with the advantage of reduced travel time for their employees and the ability to provide new state of the art facilities in their residential neighborhood be it for work, shopping, dining or watching movies.
World over there has been technological development over time and this has reflected in the construction industry too. Today cities are planned to grow vertically unlike in the earlier centuries when they were perceived to grow horizontally.
There has been a tremendous change in lifestyle and facilities and amenities that define our life today. Landscape architecture today is an integral part of one’s lifestyle at home or at work. Techniques today allow plants to grow without their natural ground or soil. Green walls, Bio walls, hydroponics, green roofs, podium gardens, land bridges are the new terms in the landscape dictionary that show the transition from hills, rivers and the horizon to sky being the limit in the Urban landscape. This language reflects in the new corporate landscape architecture of our country too today.
Accroding to Kavita Srivastava, Landscape architect, “Conscious efforts are being made not only to build high-rise buildings but also include building methods and solutions that are energy efficient. Creating a healthy work environment, with room for sports, canteens, open outdoor relaxation spaces that can be used for group discussions, workshops, or a breath of fresh air that takes away the mundane boredom of a desk job and revive us. Cleaned, well-managed, maintained, accessible, safe, structured, welcoming and refreshing work environments play an essential role in ensuring our happiness and wellbeing. Elegantly designed spaces further enhance this experience and show a level of concern that the creators, builders and investors have taken to facilitate a notch above the rest in quality of life you could enjoy be it at work or where you stay.”
These are some of the key criteria that went into designing and integrating the architectural and landscape spaces of Birla Aurora, a project of the Birla Group at Worli. The company along with the architectural and landscape architecture design consultants have carefully nurtured the presence of Century Bhavan and restored some of the relevant aspects of this building prior to giving rise to the new building Birla Aurora. The project has subtlety, yet elegantly designed spaces right from the arrival to the buildings through every moment spent within the building premise to ensure one takes home a pleasant experience.(Business Wire India)
