Climatic Zone: Composite

Climatic Zone: Composite

PEDA office complex, Chandigarh
Solar architecture in an urban context with rigid architectural controls

General description:
The climate
The PEDA (Punjab Energy Development Agency) office complex is located in Chandigarh, on a practically square site that lies on flat land with no major topographical variations. Chandigarh experiences wide climatic swings over the year, i.e. very hot and dry period of almost two and a half months (maximum DBT [dry bulb temperature] 44 C) and quite cold period of a shorter duration (minimum DBT 3 C). The hot dry period is followed by a hot humid monsoon period of about two months (maximum DBT 38 C and maximum relative humidity 90%), with intervening periods of milder climate.

Design Features:
Design response
The demand on building design, therefore, is to respond to the extremes: eliminate (minimize) heat gain in the hot-dry period, maximize ventilation in hot humid period from zones / areas designed as heat sinks and maximize heat gain in the cold period. Within the context of the radical experiment that is Chandigarh, the PEDA building has been designed with an ethos: design with nature. The physical context although unique in itself, i.e. that is urbanity of Chandigarh, offers yet another challenge for design.

The site
The site is located on a major road intersection and lies on the edge of a residential area with another proposed office buildings on the other edge. 1 PEDA office complex, Chandigarh

Climatic Zone: Composite

Scale form
While the three-dimensional form of the building has been developed in response to solar geometry, i.e. minimizing solar heat gain in the hot-dry period and maximizing solar heat gain in the cold period, the scale and form of the building respond to its urban context as well. Whereas, expression of the building on the two main roads of the intersection bears the character and scale of an office building, the building responds to the residential context on the south/south-east edges by gradually scaling down the building in mass and volume.

Climate responsive building form

Light wells, solar chimneys, and wind towers To achieve a climate-responsive building, an innovative concept in architectural design has been developed. In place of the central loaded corridor plan stacked on top of each other to make various floors, which has become virtually the generic form for an office, the PEDA building is a series of overlapping floors at different levels in space floating in a large volume of air, with interpenetrating large vertical cut-outs. These vertical cut-outs are integrated with light wells and solar-activated naturally ventilating, domical structures. This system of floating slabs and the interpenetrating vertical cutouts is then enclosed within the envelope of the building. The envelope attenuates the outside ambient conditions and the large volume of air is naturally conditioned by controlling solar access in response to the climatic swings, i.e. eliminating it during hot-dry period and maximizing its penetration in cold period. The large volume of air is cooled during the hot period by a wind tower, integrated into the building design, and in the cold period this volume of air is heated by solar penetration through the roof glazing, generating a convective loop. The thermal mass of the floor slabs helps attenuate the diurnal swings. While thermal performance of the building is a major parameter of design, adequate distribution of daylight within the entire working zone of the building is a major criterion for design. This has been achieved through the domical structures designed above the light wells, which are evenly distributed throughout the building. 2 PEDA office complex, Chandigarh

Climatic Zone: Composite Consequently, the design is thermally responsive to its climatic context and good daylight distribution is achieved, thereby minimizing the consumption of electricity. At a glance Project details Building type Commercial (office building) Climate Composite Architect Arvind Krishan, CASA, New Delhi Associate architect Kunal Jain Built-up area 7000 square metres Client/owner Punjab Energy Development Agency Contractor Amarnath Agarwal and Sons, Chandigarh Completion December 2001 Cost Not available Design features Floors interconnected volumetrically to enable passive space conditioning of the entire volume of the building Large cut-outs for light and ventilation wells Building-integrated solar photovoltaics and solar water heating Winter heating by direct solar gain through roof glazing Summer cooling through wind tower Thermal mass of floor slabs moderates diurnal swings

3 PEDA office complex, Chandigarh