COMMERCIAL BUILDING – TANZANIA

The commercial complex was to sit on a tight corner .Typically the commercial complex as a ‘type’ is conceived as a generic glass box or clad with standard materials like ACP, the consequence of such surface articulation results in clichéd products. Keeping identity and experience as our core issues we conceived an envelope that questions this very cliché of an inert glass box. By rotating alternate floors, i.e. the typical floor, varying them along the length of the building the intention was to alter the horizontal reading of the elevation. The building envelope was also not just conceived as a two- dimensional flat surface but as a three dimensional composition of tilted boxes stitched together by a graphic recess that runs across the building. These tectonic strategies not only establish a new identity for the building, but also alter perception and thereby spawn a new visual experience.