Educational

New Canteen Block, A.N.J.A. College

The new canteen at the ANJA College is more than just a shed. It is a naturally lit, well-ventilated, and flexible student’s pavilion. It is also a cost-effective and the structure can be almost fully dismantled if needed!

The additional canteen, catering to the increasing student population, along with the just-completed New Academic Block, is designed to integrate the previously individually developed buildings into a coherent campus plan, one
building at a time.

The canteen and the amphitheatre are placed between the auditorium and library buildings to activate the previously left-out space into an active student hotspot close to the ‘Academic Avenue’. The canteen continues the precedent set by the new academic block, wherein the buildings are porous and well-connected to the outside.

Can a shed be more than a shed?

Can we translate the experience of being under a tree into a shed?

Can we ensure good air movement, layered shading to reduce heat gain, a comfortably diffused light, and a sense of being in the open while creating a shed?

Can this be made cost-effective?

A total of about 600 students can be comfortably accommodated in the building. All the service spaces, such as kitchen, wash areas, and storerooms, are placed on the southern side, leaving the northern side, facing the academic blocks, open and unobstructed by permanent rooms. The canteen is therefore a pavilion, flexible in use for future modifications and demands. An open-air theatre connects the canteen and the side entrance of the college auditorium, becoming an informal student hotspot within the campus.

“The canteen is a pavilion, flexible in use for future modifications and demands”

The building is flexible, not just in use. The steel superstructure is almost completely dismantlable. Off-the-shelf steel members are used for quick and easy fabrication. Wet construction, such as walls, is kept to a minimum. The steel structure is designed in such a way that most connections are bolted, and dry connections are used. The result is that almost all of the steel superstructure can be dismantled, removed, and, if required, reused!