WOW Thinking

Victory Valley is a high-rise residential development, in Gurgaon, which is a fast developing city in India with new townships being developed by private developers. Here, I provide a broad overview of the priorities that guided our proposal for this project. Site. Given the irregular shape of the parcel, we designed something I believe is a departure from similar sites planned along a regular grid. This in turn influenced the layout of units. We had the idea of extrusions from the ground that would create an undulating, non-uniform ribbon of blocks that has become a ‘signature’ of the project. Form. There are mountains in the distance and we took cues from nature in the course of form-making. The constant addition and subtraction of form that was necessary to arrive at the current iteration was part of creating at an organic form; incorporating the ‘mountain range’ into the profile of the ...

One of the many threads woven into the design of the Bishopsgate house was the desire to protect existing trees and facilitate the natural propagation of native trees to minimize growth of non-native species.  To achieve this, we selected certain trees for conservation, designated areas for natural propagation by local birds and specified giant shade trees found in the area to further develop the vision. There was an old Jambu Laut standing  about 25 metres tall that was l right in the middile of the site. The client agreed to conserve this tree as  it would take years for the landscape to mature enough replace the shade this tree provided. This tree was protected during the construction provided a central focus to the landscape design as well as a sense of continuity with the quality of Bishopsgate. This neighbourhood is known for the Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) tree. Tembusus were scattered ...

With each project we undertake, our definition of sustainability is further developed based on the unique environmental, cultural, economic and human qualities of the site.  The Bishopsgate house offered a profound opportunity for introspection about building a family home on a heritage site in land scarce Singapore and to understand the role of an Architect as a steward of the landscape. I was first directed to Bishopsgate when it was a residential compound for the senior officers of HSBC.  For half a century, this site was occupied by stately bungalows set in a rich verdant landscape of Tembusu and Delonix,  giant shade trees that kept the entire area cool and fragrant. The idea of building on the gentle slopes of this old ground which had scarcely been built upon before was intoxicating. The estate was set on 7000sq m of rolling hills, a fraction of the original swathe that included ...