A student housing development in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India, artfully meshes modern design with the historic footprint of the surrounding city to create a beautiful university community that both blends in and stands out.
The Street, designed by Mumbai, India–based Sanjay Puri Architects for GLA University, is modeled after the organic layout of Mathura’s old city streets. The twisting footprint and angular exterior façade of the 211,000-square-foot, 800-unit complex provides a distinct character for each of its individual spaces and a marked contrast to the linear student housing communities on either side. Completed in 2017, the project's 800 rooms, meant for both students and community staff, are split across five slim, four-story buildings. A dining hall and common room are located in the central courtyard, and breakout spaces appear at the points where the buildings turn.
Each of The Street’s living spaces is marked by one of its distinctive wedge bay windows, which extend from the buildings at nonuniform angles oriented toward the north. This provides each of the rooms with sunlight throughout the year as well as views of the courtyard and garden spaces on the lot’s north end. While all of the blocks’ exterior walls are painted gray or beige, the dining hall, common rooms, and interior bay windows are punctuated by solid walls of bright color, with different hues along the internal faces of the bay windows in each block.
To minimize heat gain in Mathura’s hot climate, the buildings facilitate cross ventilation with openings from each room into the internal corridor. Many of the project’s materials are locally sourced, including its aluminum, cement, fly ash bricks, and two local limestone varieties, Kota Stone and Jaisalmer Stone.
