Student

Residences,
Thapar
University
McCullough Mulvin Architects

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 "Active larger-scaled
social areas are
gathered under the
podium, interspersed
with water, trees,
and landscaping"

T he student residences at Thapar University are

conceived as one anchor of the overall masterplan,
linked to the learning centre by a shaded walkway, which
connects the main teaching buildings of the campus.
Taking clues from Indian history and culture, particularly
the tradition of gardens and geometry, we thought
about creating a cluster of seven geometric towers
celebrating both individual identity and togetherness, like
chess pieces shifted in different directions. Looking at
traditional buildings, where shade and privacy is created
with jali screens around verandahs or by cutting down into
the ground, we made an artificial geography by creating
a podium level linking the towers, under which social
exchange could take place; screened to allow sunlight
through, using water to modulate heat and create air
movement.
Location Patiala, Punjab, India We wanted to create a specific sense of place for
Floor Area 52,850m² students to live together, on a range of scales from the
Value Undisclosed individual to the community. Active larger-scaled social
Duration June 2015 – August 2017 areas are gathered under the podium, interspersed
with water, trees, and landscaping. Inside the towers,
Architect McCullough Mulvin Architects split double-height social spaces promote activity and
exchange between smaller groups. The students’ bedrooms
Project Architect DesignPlus Associates Services
become their own calm refuge, opening to a screened
Project Management Colliers International
balcony and a view back to the campus; connected, yet
Structural Engineer Pristine Ideas Consulting
with capacity for individual reflection in a busy world.
Engineers / Arup Consulting Engineers
Using GRC (glass reinforced concrete) – a sustainable
M+E Engineer Kanwar Krishan Associates
material, locally manufactured – and translating the red
Landscape Integral Designs (previous page) 1. Students’ bedrooms open to a
ochre soil of the Punjab into a filigree of red GRC screens,
Facade Consultant Everest Industries International screened balcony and a view back to the campus
a unitary massing is created which lets light through to
Contractor Gannon Dunkerley & Co. balconies and allows the massive concrete structures to
(this page) 2. Inside the towers, split double-height
read clearly from the social spaces as a strong background social spaces promote activity and exchange between
Photography Christian Richters rhythm to daily life. smaller groups 3. A filigree of red GRC screens creates
Text McCullough Mulvin Architects We try to understand place and what is special about a unitary massing which lets light through and allows
Review Johnny Tucker it; the populous cities of India are alternately crammed the massive structure to be read clearly as a strong
with busy people in tight spaces and islands of calm and background to daily life 4. An artificial geography links
the towers and forms its own public realm 5. Layers
reflection – generally inside walled gardens, courtyards,
of social space, from the scale of individual floors to
and buildings. Thapar University campus is a microcosm
the world of the university as a whole, are intended
of the city outside its gates, generating a series of places to encourage interaction and develop relations
alternately buzzing and calm.

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 TEA STATION LOCATION
STAND
TV

"... a microcosm of the

city outside its gates,
TEA STATION LOCATION
STAND
TV

STAND
TV
generating a series
of places alternately

STAND
TV
buzzing and calm"

Ground Floor Third Floor

Sixth Floor Seventh Floor

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 B
A A

Podium Level Upper Level

B
N

0 5 10
0 5 N 10 20

0 50m 100m

Site Plan
Ground Level

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 Work in progress
"The whole
undercroft’s materiality by Johnny Tucker

is exposed concrete, T hapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, in

Patiala, in the far north-west of India, opened in
It’s a piece of considered, European, brutal minimalism
tempered by a local tradition.

which changes to red 1956, less than a decade after partition. It was, and
still is, the concern of the Thapar family, a family of
This podium motif and relationship of materials is
continued in the new men’s hostel accommodation a

stone – synonymous
industrialists and philanthropists. Scattered across little way on from the end of the central walkway. Here,
102ha of land in this, the Punjab’s fourth-largest city, McCullough Mulvin has completed four of a planned
are various non-descript, blocky, painted buildings, seven blocks currently housing 1,140 men and that,
with northern India making up the university. The vast majority of them are
so lacking in personality or even recognisable features
when complete, will eventually house two thousand.
The men’s accommodation blocks sit together in a

and its forts ..." that the executive architect (Design Plus Associates,
from Delhi) showing me around wouldn’t even hazard a
complex. The ground level is all about porosity with
large communal areas. Exposed concrete rises from
guess at when most of them were built. ground level, including the large pilotis. Here also,
But change is afoot. Although the project only began in everything turns red at podium height – from giant
principle in 2015, already some very large, very modern steel beams criss-crossing the space to another walkway
buildings have been completed. These new structures around the buildings. This level too has its community
integrate classical and more modern Indian traditions spaces, including large square tables for playing chess.
and architecture, with a twenty-first-century European Each of the blocks is clad with red perforated screens
sensibility, on quite a monumental scale compared – a direct reference to the traditional Indian hand-
to what’s come before. It’s hard to convey just how carved jali screens whose geometric patterns allow
different this is from what is extant. air and dappled light through. Hand-carved marble or
While there is a history of European architectural other stone would have been prohibitively expensive,
intervention just down the road in Chandigarh, what so the architects’ answer was to create them from
exactly is a practice from Dublin doing creating coloured, glass-reinforced concrete. These giant screens
buildings in the Punjab? And not only that, its first surround the buildings with occasional Corbusier-like
building in India? The geography is important. As vista views punched through.
part of a push for a more national presence and Each tower, while identical for cost reasons, is
international profile, the Thapar Institute has also differently orientated – one piece within a diverse
forged links with universities outside of India, including jigsaw. Layers of social space, from the scale of
Section
Trinity College Dublin. McCullough Mulvin just so individual floors to the world of the university as a
happens to have worked for that august educational whole, are intended to encourage interaction and
body and so came under positive scrutiny. develop relations, both personal and professional.
As well as a new heart – the Learning Centre Looking inside these accommodation blocks, you
building – McCullough Mulvin has given the institute suddenly find yourself confronted by a building that,
a new spine, unifying the campus along a central route though new, looks as though it has had rough treatment
that starts at one end with a visitors’ centre which, for a number of years. There are a few factors at play
accessed from a new entrance, widens out as it moves here: one, the level of finishing has not been great
along through the Learning Centre core, thins down and the architects are the first to point this out. New
again, and ends at dramatic new accommodation blocks. finishing contractors are now on board for the Learning
Plans for the next phase include more accommodation, Centre building and the difference is marked. There’s
a venture lab, and sports centre. also the phasing issue and the way things are done
The central part of this spinal route can be taken in differently in India. The financial imperative meant
one of two ways. Some nine metres up in the air (at its that students moved in before snagging had happened.
highest points) is a red stone path through a planted Lifts still have large parts of the stainless steel covered
landscape, which should hopefully flourish under in protective plastic, areas around doors have majorly
India’s hot sun. This is called the podium level. The cracked plasterwork, and there’s a host of other faults or
second path lies directly beneath this, a cool undercroft incompletions that in a European building would have
for those days when the sun is a little too hot – a large been sorted way before handover. McCullough Mulvin is
Section column-free space, complete with an ornamental confident they will be finished properly eventually.
pool and fountain, à la Mughal gardens. This shaded So it’s a work in progress, but it’s also a space
space can be as much as ten degrees cooler than up teeming with students. One in which new forms meet
above. The whole undercroft’s materiality is exposed existing contexts to make a campus that is equal parts
concrete, which changes to red stone – synonymous social, educational, and distinctly of its place.
with northern India and its forts – at the podium level.

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