Sandstone murals adorn giant office in Kolkata by Morphogenesis
Murals carved into sandstone panels decorate ITC Green Centre, an expansive mixed-use office development in Kolkata by Indian architecture studio Morphogenesis.
Situated within the city's emerging Rajarhat suburb, the ITC Green Centre comprises a collection of rectilinear volumes and an elongated low-rise volume across a 6.8-hectare site.
The project, which houses office and residential towers, alongside a hotel and a knowledge centre, is the first phase of a wider masterplan, for which additional towers are yet to be completed.
Morphogenesis said it conceptualised the campus as an "urban anchor" for the expanding Rajarhat suburb.
"The campus was conceived as an urban anchor within Rajarhat, a rapidly expanding suburb in the north of Kolkata, being developed as its next growth corridor," studio co-founder Manit Rastogi told Dezeen.
"The surrounding area was evolving quickly and the ambition was to create a development that could define the identity and structure of this emerging district," he added.
The studio drew on Bengal's cultural and climatic context for the ITC Green Centre's massing and orientation, with its buildings placed at an 18-degree angle to reduce solar exposure and capture prevailing southern winds for ventilation.
On its east and west facades, expansive sandstone panels have been carved with 30-metre-tall murals informed by Bengali art and crafts.
These murals are based on hand-drawn artworks that were digitised and CNC-milled into the sandstone panels, with final details hand-chiselled by local craftspeople.
Complementing this, the facades of the low-rise knowledge centre have been finished with Bengali script.
"For us, the ITC project was never just about designing a collection of mixed-use buildings; it was about capturing the soul of Bengal and translating it into a contemporary urban language," studio co-founder Sonali Rastogi said.
"We were very conscious of developing a material language for the campus that felt rooted in its context and expressive of its larger identity," she continued. "It's a beautiful intersection of high-tech fabrication and traditional craftsmanship that turns the facades into a public gallery of sorts."
An external corridor sheltered by a canopy runs through the ITC Green Centre, serving as a "public spine" that connects the different facilities.
Throughout the campus are pockets of greenery, as well as an amphitheatre-style events space at ground level.
Inside, a modular construction system was adopted to create a flexible and column-free layout for the office towers.
Textured flooring and graphics serve as nods to Bengali art and culture throughout the interiors.
The studio previously built the world's largest office building in India, encompassing a 660,000-square-metre site in Surat.
Other office buildings recently featured on Dezeen include the Snøhetta-designed headquarters for automotive company Ford in Michigan, USA, and a building in Tokyo designed by Wataru Architects with a fifty-metre-long skylight.
The photography is by Paul Raftery.
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