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August 20, 2020
Text: Colleen Curry
A Celestial Outdoor Canopy by Abin Design Studio Encourages an Upward Perspective
Atop an office building in Eastern India, a celestial outdoor canopy by Abin Design Studio encourages an upward perspective. Over three years of development, 26 architects, designers, engineers, and fabricators led by Abin Design Studio founder and principal Abin Chaudhuri assembled the rooftop installation, which is made up of 752 spheres, each 1-3 feet in diameter. The spheres are supported by 11 structural columns, each 15 feet high.
An AutoCAD illustration shows the process of creating modules for Abin Design Studio’s rooftop installation at the RP–Sanjiv Goenka Group headquarters, an eight-story building in Kolkata, India. Image courtesy of Abin Chaudhuri.The 10,000-square-foot terrace is the company’s guest entertainment area. Photography by Edmund Sumner.Visitors arrive via elevator into a circular foyer. Photography by Edmund Sumner.Panels of stainless steel fitted at the top with a fountain element surround the foyer. Photography by Abin Design Studio.Another water feature doubles as a 24-by-50-foot skylight for the building, for which ADS designed the interiors last January. Photography by Edmund Sumner.The canopy’s branching arrangement was inspired by grapevines. Photography by Paromita Chatterjee.Fastened to each module are dozens of hollow spheres made by bending two stainless-steel sheets into round shapes of varying sizes, and then welding and mirror-polishing them. Photography by Abin Design Studio.
