Estella Towers

The site for this new residential high-rise tower is located within the mixed use post industrial part of South Mumbai called Lalbaug and was home to several cotton and textile mills and their worker settlements.

Inspired from the textile tradition as well as the strong local community and their festive traditions that the area is known for, the façade for the podium of this residential high-rise is designed to be an open, perforated and festive one.

One of the key features of the podium facade for the Estella towers is the double height landscape garden on the south west side. The horizontal slanted cuts within the facade create a dynamic mood while the large palms add to a tropical lush vertical garden to an otherwise industrial parking space.

The upper residential floors are designed as vertical gardens through a series of modular, lightweight and perforated planters and balconies interspersing a green fabric within the dense fabric of Mumbai.

Using “red patakas” (pennets) as the block motif, the façade for the lower car park and commercial spaces is designed to be a perforated woven fabric.

The red pennets will become an interspersed motif pattern throughout the metal façade giving a unique and festive identity to the building along with being a sun shading system.

Facade Panel Evolution

Facade Development

The pattern is then modularized into five to 6 different prefab aluminum panels of that can be installed from slab to slab and shifted across the façade to create a weave like pattern across the entire surface.

The perforated nature of the panels give much needed air and ventilation to the podium parking.

Axonometric Diagram