New age designs

Ravi Aederi is reaching for that 'oh-my-god' effect in each of his projects.

A rchitect Raja Aederi believes in modern architecture because "it's clean, efficient, the services are in order and of course 'modern' in appearance with use of aluminium, glass and granite". He's not a great fan of the post-modern stuff that we see in many projects across India "" Greek columns, Vaastu and feng shui are all useless, he declares.

Raja Aederi Consultants mostly works on hotels, commercial and IT buildings, though its current portfolio of ongoing projects also includes two stadiums in New Delhi, which it is refurbishing for the Commonwealth Games 2010.

Ask him what is unique in the work he does and he'll tell you that in every project, "we try to do something different to get that 'oh-my-god' feeling". Aederi originally designed the Le Meridien in New Delhi in the early 1980s and tells us how the suspended restaurant at the centre of the atrium there was completely new, at least then. Interestingly, atriums and capsule lifts were not too common in India at that time, he says.

A project he is working on at the moment is a 600-ft-high five-star hotel building in Worli, Mumbai. This will be a 600-room, 1,200-service apartments hotel which should be ready in two years. "The F&B outlets and banquets will be at 600 ft and there will be a separate elevator shaft running on the outside connecting the F&B and banquets through a bridge," says Aederi, about the unique features of the hotel.

He'll tell you though that working on Jahawar Bhawan, way back in 1988-89, was closest to Aederi's heart. "It was being planned as the Congress headquarters and would have been the first intelligent building in India," he recalls.

Sam Pitroda also worked on the building, which was to be equipped with technology unheard of in those days "" video conferencing, computer access for everything. About 20 years ago the building was striving to be energy efficient.

Aederi recalls that it was great working with Sam Pitroda and even Rajiv Gandhi was closely involved with the project. "I had suggested that since it was going to be the Congress headquarters, a portion could be dedicated to displaying the history of the Congress," he says.

He got a chance to work on the Vigyan Bhawan too, because of an accident. A fire had gutted part of the convention centre in Delhi in 1990 and led to its closure and subsequent revamp, which Aederi and his team handled.

In the fire, the roof in the centre had gone. Aederi explains that the original Vigyan Bhawan was not a very practical space. It was decided to convert it into a proper conferencing destination for which extensive changes were made. A lot of the original woodwork had to be removed (wood was what fuelled the fire).

The breakout area today was where the gutted section of the building stood. The plenary hall was designed with new seating for over 600 and brand new interiors and sound systems. Finally, fire safety was enhanced.

Of the two stadiums in Delhi going in for a facelift, one is going to be almost completely redone. The Talkatora Indoor Boxing stadium is a place where, apart from boxing, a lot of other events take place and, keeping this in mind, Aederi's team is working on improving all aspects, offering brand new audio and visual experiences to get a great ring side view.

A new airconditioning system would also do wonders. At Shivaji stadium, which is going to be used as a practice stadium for the games, a new two-level basement parking is being planned, which will go a long way in sorting out the parking woes in Connaught Place as well. New stands will be created and new turf laid.

In the pipeline are a slew of hotels, 18 in total, of which eight are on railway land for the Best Western group. Expect their hotel structures to be steel and glass modern.

But then, his company doesn't have just domestic ambitions. Aederi is working on a large project for the King of Bahrain, the project to include offices, a convention centre, biodiversity park, service apartments and more. That's called catching the world's eye.