Location: Jaipur
Area: 3 acres
Climatic Zone: Hot-Dry
Architects: Morphogenesis
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur is a campus that has been designed to provide an environmentally responsive passive habitat. The institute develops dynamic places for a creative student body to work in multipurpose zones that effortlessly integrate the interiors and the outdoors. The institute’s radical architecture is the result of a synthesis of the vast traditional building knowledge bank with cutting-edge contemporary architecture. The Pearl Academy of Fashion is a model of inclusive architecture, aiming to incorporate all heritage values while remaining within the contemporary cultural and architectural paradigm.
Planning: Pearl Academy
Pearl Academy is located on the outskirts of Jaipur in the soulless Kukas industrial region, about 20 kilometres from the famed walled city, in a typical hot, dry, desert-type climate. It is ranked third among India’s top ten fashion design colleges, and its design is required to convey the seriousness of its academic orientation through formal geometry. Given the nature of an institution, the project’s budgetary limits required the usage of cost-effective design solutions to stay within the price points given by the customer while still achieving the intended functionality and effect.
As the building serves a purpose in a desert, it is designed to withstand the heat. While it is planned with a courtyard to keep the building from heating up, the designers – Morphogenesis architects – appear to put a contemporary spin on features, including the courtyard. One section of the main floor is adorned with a stepped well or baoli, which is intended to decrease the temperature surrounding it and create a more comfortable microclimate in the structure.
Over, it sits an aesthetically moving stage of sorts which can be used as a performance area. The building is a beautiful mix of curves and corners and the segregation of these areas blend in perfect harmony to create a space that is both inside out and outside in, i.e., a beautiful blend of outdoors and indoors. Multifunctional spaces are present to bend the building into use as needed.
Design Solutions
The architecture of Pearl Academy combines modern adaptations of traditional Indo-Islamic architectural components with passive-cooling tactics common in Rajasthan’s desert climate, such as self-shading courtyards, water bodies, baolis (step wells), and jaalis.
The building is shielded from the elements by a double skin, known as the ‘jaali,’ which acts as a thermal buffer between the structure and its surroundings. It decreases direct heat gain by articulated fenestrations and provides three functions: air, light, and privacy filters.
Sustainable living in Action
To reduce heat absorption, traditionally inspired low-cost roof insulation methods have been adopted. Inverted matkas (earthen pots) are spread across the surface, and the spaces between them are filled with sand and broken bricks before being covered with a thin, binding coating of concrete. The Pearl Academy is an example of inclusive design that is socio-culturally relevant and influenced by local heritage, all while fitting into the contemporary cultural and architectural paradigm. In Barcelona, India’s first World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award for ‘Best Learning Building’ was given to the Pearl Academy.
The Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur is a campus that has been designed to provide an environmentally responsive passive habitat. The institute develops dynamic places for a creative student body to work in multipurpose zones that effortlessly integrate the interiors and the outdoors. The institute’s radical architecture is the result of a synthesis of the vast traditional building knowledge bank with cutting-edge contemporary architecture.
Climate Responsive Passive Habitat
The harsh climate makes controlling the micro-climate within the project difficult, therefore implementing various passive climate control methods becomes necessary. This also minimises reliance on resource-hungry mechanical environmental control mechanisms. The academy’s architecture had to be a synthesis of modern adaptations of traditional Indo-Islamic architectural elements and passive cooling strategies common in Rajasthan’s hot-dry desert climate, such as open courtyards, water bodies, a step-well or baoli, and jaalis .
All of these aspects have been developed from their historical applications but will manifest themselves through the architectural form and become an integral part of the design student’s daily life.
The building of Pearl Academy is shielded from the elements by a double skin adapted from a traditional construction element known as the ‘Jaali’ that is common in Rajasthani architecture. The double skin serves as a heat barrier between the structure and its environment. The density of the perforated outer skin was calculated using computational shadow analysis depending on the façade orientation. The outer skin is 4 feet away from the structure and reduces direct heat gain through fenestrations. Drip channels extending around the inner face of the Jaali provide for passive downdraft evaporative cooling, lowering the temperature of the incident airflow.
The project employs self-shading sliver courts to regulate the temperatures of internal areas and open stepped wells while allowing for adequate daylighting inside studios and classrooms. The entire structure is elevated above the ground, and a scooped-out underbelly serves as a natural thermal sink that is cooled by water bodies via evaporative cooling. This thermally banked underbelly serves as a vast student recreation and exhibition zone and acts as the project’s anchor. When the temperature in the desert drops at night, this floor slowly transfers the heat to the surroundings, making the space thermally comfortable. This temporal lag corresponds to the institute’s staggered operation.
Materials and Construction
The building materials are a mix of native stone, steel, glass, and concrete chosen with the region’s climatic conditions in mind while maintaining the progressive architectural goal. Energy conservation is a top priority, and the institute is completely self-sufficient in terms of captive power and water supply, as well as promoting rainwater collecting and wastewater recycling via a sewage treatment plant.
Aside from becoming a very successful model for cost-effective passive architecture in arid regions, the campus’s design and facilities suit the Pearl Academy of Fashion’s vision – a cutting-edge design institute with a sustainable approach.
The Pearl Academy of Fashion is an exemplar of inclusive architecture that intends to accommodate all heritage values while positioning it within the contemporary cultural and architectural paradigm.
Awards Best Learning Building
- Best Learning Building, World Architecture Festival Awards, 2009
- Highly Commended Seal of Distinction, Cityscape Architectural Awards, 2009
- Best Sustainable/Green Architecture, ArchiDesign Awards 2009
- Special Mention, The Institutional Architecture Award, A+D &
- Spectrum Foundation Architecture Awards 2009Cityscape
- Architectural Review Special Award for Environmental Design, 2007
