4.1
Starting from the trees
About 40 per cent of the woodland is kept untouched, and paths are laid so that every walk passes through shade.
Case study 09 / 10 · Education & Research
A Campus below the canopy
Bharat Petroleum Learning Centre, Rasayani, Raigad
A residential learning Campus planned like a retreat in a 19.93-acre forest, with no building above the trees.
- Project
- Bharat Petroleum Learning Centre
- Location
- Rasayani, Raigad, Maharashtra
- Client
- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
- Our role
- Project Management consultant, Architect and landscape Architect
- Built-up area
- 17,509 m²
- Site area
- 19.93 acres
- Project value
- ₹250 crore
- Status
- In design
01
The brief
A residential training Campus for Bharat Petroleum’s senior management, where people step away from the pace of Mumbai to learn. It should feel less like an office and more like a retreat.
The Campus holds a learning centre with teaching wings, a 300-seat multipurpose hall and an amphitheatre, two-storey Hostels with 144 rooms and executive suites, a club with a pool, and a dining hall.
02
The site
19.93 acres of woodland at Rasayani, in Raigad district: a green pocket a world away from the city.
03
The idea
Draw the Master Plan around the forest rather than over it. About 40 per cent of the existing woodland is kept untouched, and new planting carries the landscape further, so that around 60 per cent of the ground stays green. Buildings take the clearings between the trees.
No building rises above two floors, and the learning centre, the club and the other shared buildings are held to a single storey, so that from almost anywhere on the Campus it is the woodland that fills the view.
- 1The canopy above every roofBuildings sit in clearings between the trees.
- 2Learning centreA single-storey building around shaded courtyards; a break between sessions means stepping out into air and green.
- 3HostelsTwo storeys, 144 rooms and executive suites.
- 4Club and poolWith the dining hall, a short walk away under the trees.
- 5Paths in shadeEvery walk, from a room to a classroom or the club, passes through shade.
- 6AmphitheatreA place to meet in the open.
04
The design
4.2
Learning around courtyards
The teaching wings open onto shaded courtyards, and a 300-seat hall serves the larger gatherings.
4.3
Living among the trees
Hostels, the club with its pool and the dining hall sit a short walk apart under the trees, so evenings are spent outdoors as much as indoors.
More views
05
Outcome
ARCH-EN DESIGN is the Architect, landscape Architect and Project Management consultant for the Campus, which is in design.