Engineers India

House
By Ar. Raj Rewal

Bhikaji Cama bazaar,New

Delhi,1978

Overview

Forms part of the commercial district centre at Bhikhaji bazaar.

Houses the administrative, design, financial and public relation offices

of a public sector.

Architect was awarded the first prize for this project.

Concept

The long spans and cantilevers expressed on the faade create the

appropriate image for an

Engineering Concern.

The aim was to create an air-conditioned office space with least

possible running expense.

Articulation

Core

Design has 4 cores, each on the corner.

Outcome: A large hall in the middle for flexible

office planning.

Core components: staircase, lifts, and services.

Lifts, staircases provided at ends of hall to allow for

rush hour traffic and provide two distinct fire exits.

The Approach and the Entrance

EI House is entered by car directly from the road and has two levels of
parking underneath.

Pedestrians enter the upper ground floor either by the external staircase
or directly from the plaza.

The central part of the entrance is ten meters high and gives access to the
mezzanine at three levels serving as exhibition spaces with changing
views.

10 meters

Interiors

The structure of the reinforced concrete diagrid is exposed internally.

Ribs on the roof slab form a ceiling pattern incorporating lighting panels
and air conditioning ducts.

The internal stone cladding is polished to harmonize with the flooring

and teak paneling.
Ribs
Teak paneling

Polished stone
cladding

Floor Area Utilization

The partitions within wall are movable and can be varied according to
functional requirements.

Lower two floors used as public relations offices, containing exhibition

spaces and small conference rooms.

Office floor area: 54X24.6 meters

Total floor area: 18200sq meters with capacity of 1800 people.

Office floor area

Daylight
analysis

Day lighting Strategies

Daylight-optimized building footprint

Climate-responsive window-to-wall area ratio

High-performance glazing

Day lighting-optimized fenestration design

Skylights (passive or active)

Tubular daylight devices

Solar shading devices

Daylight-responsive electric lighting controls

Daylight-optimized interior design (such as furniture design, space planning, and

room surface finishes).

Daylight-optimized building
footprint

Larger parameters are north-south oriented.

The cores are designed to cut down harsh glare

from south-west.

Office floors are stepped creating overhangs on

the south side.

Reason: Protects the building from sun, thus

creating space for roof terraces on the north
side.

South-west
glare

Northern
Side
Overhangs

Northern side

Steps
Southern side

cores

The stepping of the floors within the cores

and extending different floors to the east and
west ends of the buildings.

Reason: Creates a zone for surface under steps

shadow, thus reducing temperature.

Southern side

Sun breaker

The structural cores and the extended floors

form a giant sun breaker.

core

Receding

Daylight-optimized interior
design

The workspace has floor depth of 24.6metres between windows which

has substantially low energy load.

The cores and floor overhangs used to create protective shadows on

faade.

Outcome: Cost of air conditioning in EI building is half of similar

buildings in Delhi.