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The celebrated Ishanya Mall, located in Pune.
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The steel superstructure of India’s largest specialIty mall designed by Malik Architecture was responsible for saving construction time, reports Maria Louis.

Not far from the Golf Course and just a short drive away from both the international airport and the city centre of Pune, the second largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai, lies the famed Ishanya Mall – an international design and retail centre for the construction industry.

The only design centre endorsed by the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) and the Confederation of Construction Products and Services (CCPS), it is a business destination by day and a cultural centre after hours. With its amphitheatre and art galleries, the speciality mall features the finest in the visual and performing arts.

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The concept, a rather unique one, was to create “a hub that brings together the visual arts, architecture, fine arts, music, theatre and cinema, that introduces a cultural syntax and brings together the realms of public and commercial space,” explains Arjun Malik of Malik Architecture, the firm that designed the mall wonder.

This they did by visualising a series of spaces such as the main street, courtyards, wadas and kunds, weaving them together into a tapestry that echoes the “timeless philosophy of India” and results in an environment that “speaks the language of tranquillity and serenity that is so essential to creative thought.”

Wadas were the traditional form of Maratha architecture predominant in and around Pune. Its style was an amalgamation of features from Mughal, Rajasthani and Gujarati architecture, recreated using local construction techniques.

Features like high walls, distinctive fenestrations and buildings of two or more storeys arranged around open courts, have been incorporated in the design. Kunds (step-wells) were not just wells, but also used for religious ceremonies. The building scheme features an amphitheatre that overlooks a kund-like leisure pool.

Ishanya, meaning north-east in Sanskrit, is located in the auspicious north-east corner of Pune and housed in a lush green 10-acre campus. Under one roof made from steel and glass, you will find consultants, technology, building services and materials that enable architects, engineers and interior designers to fashion their masterpieces.

The layout unfolds to visitors in a sequential hierarchy of spaces: from the intimate human scale of the street to the intermediate scale of the courts and secondary spaces, and the almost industrial scale of the tertiary arcade spaces.

Using a combination of concrete, glass and steel sinuously woven together in symphony, the glass and water bodies skillfully enhance the lightness of the architecture. Carefully designed lighting provides an effect that is at once dramatic and aesthetic.

The mall is divided into six arcades linked together through the main circulation spine, the Street, which runs laterally through the site and behaves like a civic space. So, the visitor is not confined to a closed environment, but is constantly interacting with the outside. This continuously infuses life into the public spaces, which otherwise tend to wither due to neglect. Every arcade has its own distinct feature that sets it apart from the rest, simultaneously echoing a unified architectural language.