A Spectrum of Engineering Solutions
The University Centre began as a concept – as a hub for students and faculty and to accommodate their growing numbers with time. Inaugurated this year and
designed by Stephane Paumier of SPA Design, it now houses spaces for all the formal and informal activities, including meeting rooms, activity rooms, and seminar rooms to areas for leisure activities like food and sports.
The leitmotif here is interconnectedness – a central hub of spaces that fosters collaborative interdisciplinary exchanges outside the classroom. The University Centre blends seamlessly with the interdisciplinary intent of the University, as a nucleus of not just leisure but also of crucial engagement between faculty and students, as well as between students across disciplines, a potent blend of visionaries and thinkers. The staggering of floors makes the building appear much larger than it is and, importantly, allows students to spot each other from different floors.
The University Centre allows an ingress for vehicles, and it has an underground parking facility on two levels. The basement facility has liberated most of the
Campus from the sprawling scooter parking that used to eat up its open spaces earlier.” From the parking area, users directly move up to the food street for a
morning coffee or tea before heading to their classes across the central park. The journey reverses in the evening when they pick up their vehicles to go home. Due to this activity planning, the University Centre is the de-facto gate to the Campus, a life-changer for the users offering a pause between their homes and classrooms.
The 1st floor is an extension of the covered street with multipurpose rooms and clubs/activity rooms, immediately accessible from the ground level. The large
multipurpose hall on the 2nd floor has a permanent stage for performance-oriented activities such as cinema, theatre, dance, conferences, and music. The seating
comprises telescopic sliding bleachers that are otherwise stacked vertically on the wall.
The University Offices are located In the East wing on the 2nd floor, with the Office of the Dean of Students and the meeting rooms overlooking the central
cut-outs and the exterior through verandahs. The 3rd floor is almost exclusively the faculty club and café that takes the entire East wing with a peripheral
covered verandah facing the central park and the morning sun. On the 4th floor is the quiet reading space and the Career Development Cell. The roof is dedicated
to a running track and a 6×6 futsal court.
Green Structure
The University Centre is the first building in Ahmedabad to use concrete precast technology in its structure at a large scale for all the floors with the help of factory-fabricated hollow core slabs using thin cables (12.7mm diameter) instead of conventional reinforcement. The walls and beams are in-situ concrete, while the slabs are all prefabricated. As a result, 20 per cent of steel is saved in slabs versus a conventional building. It is also a dry construction type with limited shuttering waste, limited curing water waste, and excellent exposed concrete.
Besides the structure that uses less reinforcement, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems have been designed to reuse water efficiently. The University Centre gathers the sewage water from the GICT and the School of Arts and Sciences buildings in addition to its grey water recycling for different purposes: irrigation, flushing of toilets, and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) make-up water tank. The sewage treatment plan is located in the second basement and will be able to maintain the entire irrigation of the central forest. The futsal court on the rooftop is covered by a solar roof dedicated to energy generation, with 450 solar panels generating 140 KW of solar energy. The openings on the façades are all recessed from the façade wall and open on deep verandahs to avoid direct glare on the glass and unnecessary blinds and curtains.
