Elevating Student Living with Innovative Design and Le Corbusier’s Legacy
Designed by Charged Voids the student hostel for the Chandigarh Group of Colleges, situated within a twenty-five-acre campus in Landran, a semi-urban area near Mohali, Punjab, draws inspiration from Chandigarh city’s modernist legacy. This 10-storey building occupies the campus’ bus yard instead of the initially proposed greenfield site. A simple triangular plan maximizes the use of the oddly shaped site while creating multiple interactive volumes by playing with different levels.
One of the primary concepts behind this project was to depart from the enclosed design language of the existing campus buildings. This was achieved by eliminating boundary walls, creating shaded recreational spaces. This concept materializes in the form of a triple-height, sunken public court at the core of the hostel’s basement, accessible via a wide flight of steps leading down from the approach road.
The court forms a central atrium, intersected by bridges at various levels and illuminated by large skylights. The lower floors, including the sunken court, are open to public access during the day and available to hostel occupants after hours. TV rooms with individual sunken courts, a gym, a multipurpose hall, and other ancillary facilities surround the main courtyard.
On the ground level, you’ll find the reception, dining area, and an adjacent kitchen. The first floor houses a reading room, administrative spaces, and the warden’s room. Student accommodation spaces line the floors above, with the bridges providing overflow areas and facilitating seamless circulation between corridors. Each room features a covered balcony, and the building’s exterior is finished with a grey grit texture to ensure it blends harmoniously with the campus’s other structures.
While the floor plans are straightforward, the interconnected levels and well-lit interior spaces imbue the resulting volumes with a dynamic character. Le Corbusier’s architectural influence is evident in the overall minimalist material palette and color choices of the hostel building: Kota stone flooring, grey grit exteriors, and plain white surfaces accented with primary colors are meant to evoke a sense of discovery and joy.
The structure also possesses a sculptural quality reminiscent of Corbusier’s brutalist vocabulary. Dappled daylight streaming through the skylights plays a pivotal role in shaping the sensory experience of the hostel, giving it a distinctly spiritual identity. Designed with a focus on both experience and budget constraints, the CGC Student Hostel exemplifies frugality while enhancing the quality of students’ living spaces.
Photo Credit : Javier Callejas Sevilla
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