Firm： Form4 Architecture

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2014

SIZE： 1,000,000 +

Photos： fotohaus Berlin (3), JD Peterson (1)

Located in the seventh-largest metropolis in India, Falling Lotus Blossoms: EON IT Park is an elegantly arranged quartet of buildings totaling four million square feet and occupying a site located in the EON Free Zone, a Special Economic Zone established by the government to encourage development. This 21st-century workplace, which sets a grand scale in counterpoint to the rugged Indian countryside, overlooks a river and the fields beyond on a flat site that was previously almost entirely untouched.

Inspired by nature — India’s national flower, the white lotus — the design began as different iterations of the shape of the lotus flower petal. Ultimately, four “petals” were arranged like a four-leaf clover in plan with an open space at its center. In part a response to the extreme heat and humidity and the goal of populating the outdoor spaces for more than just a few months of the year, the buildings themselves contain semi-conditioned, shaded atrium spaces that serve as meeting or gathering spaces for the buildings’ occupants. At dusk, each courtyard morphs into a giant kaleidoscope by the delineation of building elements with neon lighting.

Raised on the ground plane, the complex picks up a teleological dimension in that it becomes a quasi-temple devoted to the future of technology and its own iconography. As the eye follows the sweeping shape of the roof line, a vivid image of the fluid plane emerges. The building opens up and embraces the users of a new society. This iconic project, both in its construction phase and completion, exemplifies technology as a transformative force for the language of architecture in a fast-growing country like India.