The Municipal Corporation office at Palarivattom, Ernakulam contains a 600 Sq Ft space in one corner of its limits. The space gets utilized for some meetings, but is largely unkempt due a garbage collection area close by.
The Councilor, Adv. Minimol VK conceptualized a plan to convert this space into a day care centre for the elderly, and RGB offered their services to visualize this noble plan.
The existing structure has a road towards one end of the larger precinct, and this end was used as the main access to the building, thus creating a back towards the main Corporation Office.
The plan for the adaptive reuse of this building into a larger facility reversed its face towards the main entrance creating a larger and more genial gathering space that becomes an added asset to the public functioning of the Municipal Office.
The facility contains a community hall cum library, and the existing building is repurposed into a common kitchen and a multi-purpose activity space for the elderly. These two main components are then housed under a spacious volume with access from the public plaza, such that the terrace area under the roof can further add to the meeting spaces overlooking the verandas.
The concave aspect of the resulting form creates an intimate garden towards the rear road side flanked by the verandas, and carefully envelopes the existing trees on site. This space hopes to set an example for sustainable practices, especially in the vicinity of the garbage collection zone next door.