Skydham, a high-end residential tower is designed to bring in the best combination of modern construction technology and highest form of luxury. The client had given a clear brief to the architect to develop what is unique in its form, utility and construction. Tall buildings are being made for a while now, but, no one has given a thought of making those buildings self-sufficient at that height.
Unique Creation
With Skydham, Architect Prem Nath thought about creating sky-high villas – thus one has a multi-level penthouse apartment at all floor levels. Its every corner has a garden and high tech facilities. The skyline is good and one has the opportunity to live in a villa at the sky-high level which is the high point of this project. This project’s design development underwent quite a few ideations and numerous initial concept sketches, however, the best evolved from the base design thought by Architect Prem Nath; wherein the evolved concept was what gave the building an ergonomic look and feel.
“Skydham is a project close to my heart, not only because the project is beautiful in concept, but, also because it is bound to change the common perception about the use of steel in the high-end residential segment”
ARCHITECT PREM NATH | Principal, Prem Nath & Associates
Planning With Steel
The building is being planned in composite steel – with a combination of steel with concrete; the slabs shall be all in steel panel with laid concreted over it, while the columns too shall be in steel sections encased in concrete – this is being done, not only to ensure best of construction, but, to enable faster and relatively modern technique of construction – steel is a very versatile material and with better technology available to use steel in different forms, architects get an added incentive to design freely.
With one million sq. ft. of constructed area the said composite steel structure (with approx. 10,000 tonnes of variety of sections and plates being used) is planned with about 3 basements (engineering and allied services), 5 podium floors (parking) and 60 residential floors with 4 flats on each floor, 200 apartments ranging from 3/4 BHK, duplex and triplex/penthouses – topped with high-end facilities of club, pool, spa, business lounge, recreation hall, entertainment center, children play area, cyber lounge, laundry, boutique retail and so on.
Feeling On Top
With a podium base of five floors, recreation/facility space has been elevated above the routine pollution of Mumbai. The first floor is further elevated thru provision of stilt – thereby giving one a ‘Top of the World’ feel. Level of engineering systems support too is planned to be raised by providing for IBMS, bio-metric enabled security systems, centrally purified domestic water supply, and above all, this centrally air-conditioned building aspires to be fitted with solar/photo-voltaic film on glazing and exteriors – emergency power-backup – one can call it a live-building.
This steel structure shall be unique in many ways; thru its most modern and smart looks, its dynamic form in plan, its high speed and intelligent vertical transport system (having 12 nos. of capsule lifts), top-of-line finishing, fittings/fixture and accessories and so on.
Strategic Designing
The structure is kept simple in plan – it is kept symmetrical on both the axis with four wings supported with a central core, which allows the structure to balance itself, and thus go higher, ensuring the best combination of rigidity and flexibility in terms of seismic forces. The multiple basements and podium base further provide a comparatively stronger base to this structure. Multiple software was used from design development to the detail stage – these are a combination of 3D visualization software to drafting tools to structural, wind and heat effect analysis software.
Architect Prem Nath has taken many leading initiatives in the field of architecture and real estate. Recently, he won the coveted HUDCO Design Award 2015 for Green Architecture – HMEL Township; and his interview on “Smart Cities” has been featured in various news channels, thus, for Ar. Prem Nath, who is not only an Architect of experience, but, a chartered engineer too, development of steel structure, aspiring to be a green rated is always a great experience – as he likes to challenge himself again and again and surpass his own high standards of design innovation.
The project is currently at the under development stage, and the site execution should be completed in a fast track method within a period of 20 to 24 months. The project stake holders list tops with the client – Ajmera Developers, Architects & Project Managers – Prem Nath And Associates, Structural Consultants being M/s. Chetana Consultants, while other stake holders viz. the execution team, etc. are yet being constituted. This project once completed is sure to raise the bar for all types of steel structures, especially in the residential sector.