Our Approach

As a Design practice, our approach has been to gradually move towards a more holistic way of looking at green buildings, where the approach is not just for 'green ratings' but to design livable spaces with sustainability as a guiding principle.

At the Concept stage itself preliminary investigations to determine ideal building orientation, neighboring buildings and their shadow masks, porosity of wind movement and views towards green landscape (for psychological and visual comfort) are considered.

For most of the urban residential projects located on very tight plots, building orientation is not always ideal. Here the emphasis is on - Window to wall ratio, depth and shape of sunshade, passive ventilator slots within facade, cross ventilation openings and screens. In our experience, applying some of these principles has found more success in commercial and institutional projects. Free from the maintaining uniformity and repeatability between each unit - the building envelope can respond more precisely and relative to the sun path orientation. Critical parameters evaluated here are - location of building cores, facade glazing percentage, daylight penetration, width of floor plate, glare control and minimizing heat load by roof and wall insulation. Institutional projects like Schools and institutions of learning offer additional opportunities to explore passive design features like - ventilation stacks, use of shading screens or jaalis for glare control. Hotel and office projects efficiently utilize the gray water generated by the sewage treatment plant in these projects in cooling plants as well as provide rooftop opportunities for on-site energy generation by solar PV panels.

We are very proud that almost all the commercial or office buildings designed by the firm, either for developers or corporate houses have achieved IGBC or Griha ratings while generating energy savings. Currently the firm is in the process of design a first-of-its-kind institutional project to have an IGBC Wellness rating.

We also work closely with leading sustainability consultants who test our design ideas using software tools like Ecotect and analysis like CFD to generate iterations and detailed results. This data is taken back to the drawings board and revisions proposed to the design in a collaborative process.

In 2018 our firm conducted a 3-day training workshop for its core team and project leads. Learning Sessions were conducted on – getting familiar with analytical tools and jargon, identifying shading requirements, determining size of shading devices, ECBC requirements for daylighting and shading and related calculations, Working session with Solar Tool, Shading Analysis and CoolVent.

The Shriram School, Wadala, Mumbai

Training Program at Kapadia Associates

The Shriram School, Wadala, Mumbai

The Shriram School, Wadala, Mumbai

Umaid Heritage, Jodhpur

Navratna Office Building, Ahmedabad

BAPS Girls school, Gandhinagar

Lodha I-Think Office Park, Mumbai

Our Approach

As a Design practice, our approach has been to gradually move towards a more holistic way of looking at green buildings, where the approach is not just for 'green ratings'but to design livable spaces with sustainability as a guiding principle.

For most of the urban residential projects located on very tight plots, building orientation is not always ideal. Here the emphasis is on - Window to wall ratio, depth and shape of sunshade, passive ventilator slots within facade, cross ventilation openings and screens. In our experience, applying some of these principles has found more success in commercial and institutional projects. Free from the maintaining uniformity and repeatability between each unit - the building envelope can respond more precisely and relative to the sun path orientation. Critical parameters evaluated here are - location of building cores, facade glazing percentage, daylight penetration, width of floor plate, glare control and minimizing heat load by roof and wall insulation. Institutional projects like Schools and institutions of learning offer additional opportunities to explore passive design features like – ventilation stacks, use of shading screens or jaalis for glare control. Hotel and office projects efficiently utilize the gray water generated by the sewage treatment plant in these projects in cooling plants as well as provide rooftop opportunities for on-site energy generation by solar PV panels.

In 2018 our firm conducted a 3-day training workshop for its core team and project leads. Learning Sessions were conducted on - getting familiar with analytical tools and jargon, identifying shading requirements, determining size of shading devices, ECBC requirements for daylighting and shading and related calculations, Working session with Solar Tool, Shading Analysis and CoolVent.