Made of steel and glass, Biswa Bangla Gate or Kolkata Gate is a doorway to Kolkata New Town. Set up by the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) on the Major Arterial Road in Kolkata, this is an iconic and unusual addition to several wonders of the city. This sturdy structure is built with materials that are good for holding up in any type of natural calamities. The gate accompanied with hanging restaurant is a place of attraction for the visitors. The committee headed by architect Dulal Mukharjee chose Vector Designs - a Pune-based architecture firm founded by Anita Dake to accomplish the design work. Check out the construction details and speciality of this architectural marvel at SURFACES REPORTER (SR). Read on:
A Tribute to Hon. Rabindranath Tagore
This icon depicts the image of the metropolis for united in strength, dynamic in progress and the liberal outlook for all streams of creativity. The design concept was an attempt to pay homage to Hon. Rabindranath Tagore and his composition ‘where the mind is without fear’…
An Avant-Garde Urban Space
Kolkata City with a rich heritage and cultural background is growing into a large metropolitan.
Hence, there was a need of a new modern urban space to accommodate the thrust of population and urban infrastructure.
This new town demands to have its identity depicting the new modern culture at the same time show casing state of the art technologies.
Construction Details
The crossroad square has four traffic islands each located diagonally opposite, which allowed to raise four massive curved steel pillar to form two intersecting arches. The total height attained by these arches was 55m. At midway height of approximately 25m from ground a 60m diameter circular ring shape platform is placed. This 4m wide platform was simply anchored to the 4 main pillars. These pillars are well anchored to the ground by high strength reinforced cement concrete foundation.
The platform is a lightweight steel complex structure in itself consisting of an approx.1112SqM of air-conditioned enclosed space with glazing on the outer periphery and the other 3 sides are wrapped with PVC coated polyester membrane camouflaging the services, roof & soffit of the ring. The idea was to give the visitors a memorable experience of a wide 360 degree viewing of the well-developed Kolkata New town from an elevated perspective.
The access to this platform is by two lifts and two decorative staircases which are wrapped like a vine around 2 main arched pillars.
The platform serves as an exhibition space portraying the culture and heritage of the town.
The structure has custom designed architectural illumination to make the building appealing and attractive even during the night.
Special Features:
The site chosen to place this iconic structure was a road intersection square of two major arterial roads. This square was also the entry point to the new town while coming from Kolkata International airport. Hence this way the structure is one of the first overwhelming things to be spotted by a visitor and has become the first impression for the new town.
The proposed sculpture with two imposing arches are stabilised with the walkway that will facilitate visitors to experience an aerial view of the new town as well as it will be an iconic structure. This Iconic City Gateway is a magnet to attract people for celebrating events of national and international stature.
See more images and Architectural Drawings of Biswa Bangla Gate at the bottom:
Project Details
Project Name: BISWA BANGLA GATE, Kolkata
Location: New Town, Greater Kolkata, West Bengal
Designer: M/s Vector Designs
Lead Architect: Anita Dake
Cost of Project: (INR): 30 Crores
Height: 55 meters
Built-up area: 1112 Sq. M
Completion Date: 27 January 2018
About the Firm
Vector Designs is a Pune-based Architecture firm founded by Anita Dake in 1990. The firm proposes a collaboration of architecture, engineering and landscape which maximizes the possibilities of the design solutions. They also propose a comprehensive design that shapes up a place and its environment towards the intangible senses of a human.
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About Anita Dake
Anita Dake, Founder, Vector Designs, graduated in architecture from the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. Anita Dake has developed expertise of an architectural engineering firm through her practice over last 30 years. She pursued a degree in Permaculture Design Course, Eco-literacy and Eco-design from Brisbane, Australia and has in-depth knowledge in the field of sustainable management of natural resources and conservation. Her firm Vector Designs specializes in architectural design, landscape design for environmental restorations and architectural realization for spatial structures in steel, membrane and glass. A few of her projects that won the best steel building awards in the past include IBM Food Court at Bengaluru, Raja Bhoj Air Terminal at Bhopal and Biswa Bangla Gate at Kolkata.
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