Shortlisted for the 2014 World Architecture Festival Award, the Grove Towers by 3XN mark the company’s first project in Mumbai. The 77,ooo m² development incorporates a 130 meters tall luxury residential tower, that houses premium 3 and 4 bedroom apartments, and a secondary slightly shorter tower containing more modest 2 bedroom apartments.
Image © 3XN
The design takes reference from the Indian nature, with the two towers converging at the lower retail floors just like Mumbai’s mangrove trees. The building rises up to provide amenity spaces on the terraced podium, including a club house, gym and pool. The residential units were carefully incorporated into the design to each feature views in at least two different directions, most of which look out towards the mangroves to the North, and Indian Ocean to the West.
Image © 3XN
There are many advantages to expressing the units as individual towers. These can be seen in the simplicity of the plans, but also in how the cluster or bouquet of individual towers help emphasize the elegance and verticality of the towers, making them appear slender and graceful.
Image © 3XN
The top of the towers, features what appears to look like a soft crown that provides the last two levels with unique penthouses featuring 5 and 6 bedroom luxury units. Each unit houses a sky garden that showcases views over Mumbai and the Mangroves to the North.
Image © 3XN
3XN’s Innovation Unit called GXN has been involved throughout the design process, in particular for the highly sustainable facade. The facade was designed to shift on each ‘corner from horizontal ‘leaf-shaped’ solar canopies to deep vertical fins which significantly reduce direct solar radiation from entering the apartments’. The numerous corners provide natural cross ventilation, reducing the need for air conditioning on a daily basis. The extensive amount of vertical gardens at the building podium, the new towers lower CO2 in Mumbai’s humid and congested environment. The Grove Towers are aiming to achieve LEED Gold certification.
Image © 3XN
Image © 3XN
Image © 3XN
Facts:
Client: Ornate Spaces Pvt. Ltd., Vijay Machindar (Managing Director), Abhimanyu Londhe (Chief Operating Officer)
Design Architect: 3XN, Kim Nielsen (Principal and Creative Director)
Executive Architect: Sandeep Shikre & Associates
Co-ordinator: Raajeev Kasat and Associates
Engineering: Buro Happold Engineers (Mumbai)
Gross Area: 77.000 m² plus 16.000 m² basement
Number of Units: 273 apartments
Height: 38 stories, 136 meters
*All images and information courtesy of 3XN.
