Egg-shaped office building in Mumbai blends natural shape with innovative technology

By: Danielle Del Sol | February - 9 - 2011

Here’s another entry in the “architecture as a natural but inanimate object” category: The new “Cybertecture Egg” has been designed as a poultry-inspired office building for Mumbai, India.
The 32,000 square meter building was designed by James Law Cybertecture International, a firm based in Hong Kong, UAE and India that has coined the term “cybertecture” to mean a meeting of architecture, technology and innovative engineering to sculpt the urban environment. One way in which the firm has used technology in a new way for the design of the Egg is by electronically monitoring workers’ health: vital signs and statistics such as blood pressure are accessible to workers electronically in restrooms, and the stats can be signaled to doctors if deemed necessary.
The building’s design attempts to decrease energy demands through passive solar design, the construction of an elevated garden to help cool the building (through a process called thermolysis), the implementation of photovoltaic panels and wind turbines on the roof, and infrastructure to recycle gray water for landscaping.
The building was commissioned by Vijay Associates (Wadhwa Developers), and features special features even beyond those already described. Workers, for example, will be able to customize their favorite “view” to enjoy the virtual scenery of their choice. Also, because of the unusual shape and positioning of the building, the interior features up to 30-meter spans of floor space that lack obtrusive columns.
The Egg clearly boasts an unusual and innovative design, and that is the ethos that defines the work of the James Law Cybertecture firm: whether you like their designs or not, their aesthetic is plowing into the 21^st century with all technology on hand and a healthy appetite for creativity.