S K Somaiya College

Access Architects was involved in the Architecture and Interior Design for two colleges on the SomaiyaVidyavihar Campus. The architecture focuses on creating infrastructure at par with the best in the country to provide students with tools necessary for success. The atrium along with specially modulated shutter type windows in the stepped auditoria style classrooms facilitate cross ventilation. This ensures that the spaces arecomfortable even in the middle of summer. One thing that both the client and the firm felt the place needed, was some soul to the building. After all it was a college building and it would be great if it can create aconnect with the students.

The firm took on the role of creating graphics and spent a month in the shoes of a Graphic designer to develop 89 artworks from scratch. These ranged froma 4.5 m tall Ganesha, welcoming one into the building, which transforms into a wonderful quote on education by Aurobindo – after whom the building is named.

The Atrium has on its walls, Mahatma Gandhi with a famous quote by him and is populated by smileys, a connect between our rich past and the present.

The public spaces were given special attention, with each of the toilet signages, staircase, and lobbies receiving special attention. The client, Samir Somaiya, took active interest and whole heartedly supported the endeavor, adding quotes and inspirations from multiple languages, as the project took shape in an extremely constrained timeline of 45 days from concept to installation.

The new building of S.K. Somaiya College of Arts, Science & Commerce' has been named Aurobindo. The design is based on Access Architects' philosophy that is based on facts, experience, and personal realization. It blends the spirituality with reality. The structure was built with the need for ample cross-ventilation and the infiltration of natural light for the most part of the day. A large atrium was designed for students to relax with an area for quiet studying too. The ground + 7 storeys building consists of various facilities including a Seminar hall, a Canteen, and a huge library. The classrooms has congressional seating (seating at different levels within the classroom). The building has an internal overlooking courtyard covered with tensile roof & designed with an idea of connecting the internal spaces with the surrounding & external landscape. Each floor has been given a different identity with the use of various color combination.

S K Somaiya College Mumbai

S K Somaiya College Vidyavihar Mumbai

At a Glance
Project Name: S.K.Somaiya College
Location: Mumbai
Architect: Access Architects
Client: Samir Somaiya

Aurobindo Access Architects

S K Somaiya College Samir Somaiya

A testimonial from Sangeeta Kohli, the principal of Somaiya College

Somaiya College Mumbai
"We at S K Somaiya College occupied our new spacious 'Aurobindo' building in 2012. The modern structure has been designed to provide ample cross-ventilation and natural light. An educational institute being a non profit center, the saving in power bill has been a great blessing. The building provides adequately for all curricular and co-curricular requirements of the institute. Moreover, the open spaces give a grand and warm feeling encouraging students to spend maximum time in the building.

Not only the stakeholders and occupants but every visitor to the institute has always had words of great praise for the structure design and ambience of the building. The large atrium of the building is used multipurpose and adds to the grand look of the building. The high point of the design is the innovatively designed graphics to project motivational quotes, which not only become a good regular reading for students but also add to the decorative look of the structure. Current day youth definitely looks forward to quality teaching but at the same time also demands modern infrastructure and facilities. In this direction, this new building has been a good attraction point and one of the reasons for rising number of student admission in this college. We would like to thank Access Architects and Jay for working so hard and making this a dream come true for us here in Somaiya College".

Currently, Ar. Jay is working on the Affordable Housing projects in Mumbai and in the near future he looks forward to working with more like-minded clients who are continuously looking for innovation in design.