TITAN INTEGRITY CAMPUS / Mindspace

T I T A N I N T E G R I T Y C A M P U S / MINDSPACE
• Architects
Mindspace Architects

• Location
Electronics City, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

• Category
Offices, Titan integrity campus

• Lead Architects
Sanjay Mohe, Swetha A, Joseph K T, Er. Mahesh.S

• Area
390000.0 ft2 (9 acres )

• Project Year
2017
 SITE LOCATION
•Electronic city,Benglore,India
•Corporate office building is
located on a 6.5acre site which has
a lake on the eastern side and road
towards north.
•Kuccha road towards eastern side
along with veerasandra lake
•Parking facility at basement
•Around 650 m of green pathways
alongside landscape and bio lake
 INTRODUCTION

1. Corporate office building is located on a 6.5acre site which

has a lake on the eastern side and road towards north.
2. The design has a very special connect with the site and the
adjoining lake. The idea is of exploiting every view possible to
the lakeside makes any user a spectator of this serene setting
3. It is one thing to use nature to beautify a building, and
another to incorporate nature as an element to complete one.
Ar. Sanjay Mohe has unlocked this possibility with Titan Integrity,
the Titan headquarters in Bangalore. Spread over a whopping
3.9lakh soft area,
4. this office fuses the outdoors with the indoors with glass walls,
stepped storey's and balconies which open out to a massive
waterbody. With the illusion of the building sprouting out from
the ground in an organic way, this office flows naturally like the
stepped terrain of a green mountain with a water body to
complement its outline.

Conceptual sketches by architect

 CONCEPT

•The idea is of exploiting every view possible to the lakeside makes any user a spectator of this serene setting
•Cascading green terraces gives a feeling of elevated ground at every level.
•Lake and green spaces creates an adequate micro climate, thus minimizing mechanical cooling.
•Green terraces are an extension of indoor office areas that allows one to work outdoors and stimulate interaction
amidst flora and fauna
 •further cut off the radiation.

Green as seen from spine

•Building is oriented with longer side facing north-south

direction to bring in natural light.
•Green wall on the west sides shields the building from
harsh sunlight of western sun.
•Green buffer zone is between green wall and usable
spaces West side green wall
 Entrance facade

Building is oriented with longer sides facing North – South to bring in Main entrance staircase
engraved words of
glare free natural light.
inspiration in concrete
GROUND FLOOR PLAN and brass strip
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
 The landscape design is
conceived as a vertical park
where each level is a green
terrace starting from
waterfront park at the ground
level to the sky park at the roof
level.

Solar panels are planned above

the terrace along the western
side and above the service yard
on the ground floor to generate
on site energy to adhere to 25%
of the energy requirement.

ROOF PLAN
 Porosity in planning and form allows
continuous movement of breeze with
wind tunnels creating venturi effect.
Common areas are open and non-air
conditioned.

Section across across offices and bio lake

A bio lake is conceived towards
eastern side of the site which
responds to the existing lake and
would seem like an extension of it.
Office building with all its ancillaries
is proposed around this bio lake.

Section showing seamless visual connectivity with existing lake.

 Conceptual sketches for atrium by
architect

ATRIUMS
•The five atriums in the campus vertically connect all the floors from
basements bringing in natural light and also signify each of departments
Perspective section of atrium
ATRIUM
Voluminous atrium also create vertical
connectivity which connect inside to outside also
bring dynamic play of natural light throughout the
day
Planning of the program is in such a way that
each of the departments like Watches, jewellery,
eye ware, accessories etc has its own zone but are
yet connected to the other departments through
voluminous atriums which brings in light and allows
hot air to escape and houses lifts and staircases.
Livemint does a beautifully articulate story on Integrity, the new Titan Company address.

Some office campuses put their occupants on the map; other campuses redefine the contours of the map
itself. Titan Co. Ltd’s corporate headquarters in Bengaluru’s Electronics City does the latter. Many of its
neighbours have huge campuses that have helped establish the Garden City’s credentials on the global
technology landscape over the last several years. But the Titan office shapes the Indian corporate
architecture map by performing outside the remit of buildings: it appears to float.

The biophilic, or nature-loving, campus looks like a jewelled emerald island or a brightly lit ship, surrounded
by water. Its open-air, asymmetric campus consists of three low-rise, stone-clad buildings. Located next to a
natural lake, and separated by waterways, the buildings are connected by a central covered spine and
several walkways, giving the illusion of a floating island, with lush green cover on all floors. Like a cruise
ship, workspaces on each floor in this campus are wrapped with terraces and balconies, where employees
can step out for a break, often kicking off their shoes, as they make most of the grassy lawns.
For the people, by the people
Both the site’s location and architectural design were deliberate picks, says Titan’s long-serving managing director
Bhaskar Bhat. “This office is for the people, and the connect with nature was to do with giving the employees a good
experience, because that is what they said they wanted when we surveyed them. It is a people’s home. They have been
involved in creating the brief of the design. This design was showcased in our old office. No one believed it would turn
out like this,” he says.

The company ran a design competition among six architects, ultimately entrusting Sanjay Mohe, co-founder of
Mindspace Architects. The company was impressed with his response to the biophilic brief. Biophilic design is “a
framework for the satisfying experience of nature in the built environment…which seeks to create a good habitat for
people, as a biological organism in the modern built environment, that advances people’s health, fitness and well-being”,
write environmental experts Stephen Kellert and Elizabeth Calabrese in The Practice of Biophilic Design, a handbook on
the subject.

A biological organism the campus certainly is. For Mohe, the campus is a “non-building. Over time, the trees will grow
and the building will disappear. It will look like a waterway with a hill on either side. Every workspace has a terrace
connected to nature and water. The maximum depth of any workspace is 20 feet, so that everyone gets natural light. We
believe in making nature an integral part of the work environment. The weather in Bengaluru is wonderful 90% of the
time, so an indoor-outdoors connect is possible”.
Engineering comfort
“Non-building” also translates as the exact opposite of a sealed box, or office buildings as most of us know them. Minimal links to
the outdoors, unopenable windows, an emphasis on elevators rather than staircases, and 100% air conditioning make these
buildings easy to execute, but they have no biophilic quotient.

Palani Kumar, vice president of integrated retail services at Titan Co. and the technical project head, shared one of the biggest
challenges of constructing a “non-building”, in terms of doing away with air conditioning altogether, without compromising on
comfort. Comfort for a person depends on three factors—temperature, humidity and airflow or ventilation. The basic principle is
that increased airflow, such as a breeze, can deliver a sense of comfort even at higher temperatures than normal indoor air
conditioning.

“The temperature is maintained at 27 degrees. We have large ceiling fans to improve air flow and a two-stage evaporative air
cooling system by which water is evaporated. The resulting cooled, fresh air is pumped in the building. There’s no recirculation of
air and hence it is 100% fresh air. There are energy-efficient chillers when humidity goes up, and wind tunnels have been created
through the building to keep it cool,” explains Kumar.

Reducing heat load, in terms of comfort as well as energy-efficiency, was a strategic objective for the building. These were met by
several measures—daylighting plan and building orientation, constructing a green wall on the western side to prevent heat gain,
installing special glazing for greater light and less heat penetration, stone-cladding, no air conditioning even in data centres, and
providing energy-efficient laptops rather than desktops.

Lower power bills are a long-term gain; there have also been other immediate rewards. The facility was recently awarded a
platinum rating by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green rating system and will apply to GRIHA (Green
Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), the home-grown version of green rating systems.
Other drivers
Project success was also predicated on revised workplace policies. Relocating anywhere in Bengaluru can be perilous. Titan was
sensitive to the big move to south-east Bengaluru from its former office in the east. After much deliberation, the firm decide to
do a swap—in exchange for fewer days off annually, daily working hours were reduced, and flexi-time policies were enhanced,
with employees free to come in as early as 7.30am and leave by 4pm. More than 50 vans were commissioned to ferry employees
across the city and help with the commute. “We have invested with trust that employees will not work less,” explains Bhat.

An emotional engagement
Biophilic design encourages a powerful emotional attachment to particular settings and places, write Kellert and Calabrese. Titan employees are, predictably, ecstatic
with their new home. Revathi Kant, chief design officer, notices that “in a natural environment, everyone feels comfortable, thinks differently, it leads to more
constructive discussion, better insights. The energy, vibe, motivation levels—all have gone up”.

Collaboration and privacy have also been addressed. Balancing “we” and “me” space is a challenge in most offices, which often run out of conference rooms, but here
the “me” space is particularly special—each employee is free to find their own perfect outdoor spot. “There are days when our Monday mornings meetings happen
with our shoes off and we walk on the grass. When I need my private time, I just step out in a foyer and put on my headsets. I don’t mind coming to office because it
doesn’t feel like office,” gushes Kartiki Karihaloo, communication head, eyewear.

Others appreciate the sense of wellness fostered by working in a biophilic space. “I’m sensitive to cold and always had to carry sweaters. In the old office in
conference rooms, I would have to figure out how to avoid the air-conditioning blast on my head. Natural fans caliberate the right temperature,” says Ruchika Sharma,
head of marketing for the fragrance business.

Titan is one of India’s most innovative companies—constantly experimenting with new product categories, and often creatively tackling social issues through its
advertising. Now, it has sparked our imagination and reinvented its physical avatar, rewriting the map on biophilia. Let us see where the ship sails.