Tag Archives: india

Apple opens first store in India, which also happens to be its most energy-efficient & sustainable one

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Nestled in Mumbai’s hustling and bustling Bandra Kurla Complex, a popular financial, arts, and entertainment district is India’s first Apple Store! And it just happened to open up today on the 18th of April. Yeah, you heard that right. India just got its first Apple store today, a couple of years too late in my opinion. Still, I guess Apple finally acknowledged that India is a serious market for them, and deserves its own store. Located in the Jio World Drive, Apple claims that the store is one of the most energy-efficient stores worldwide, and they even had Tim Cook attend the opening!

Designer: Foster + Partners

As mentioned earlier the Apple BKC is designed to be one of its most energy-efficient stores, which is supported by the fact that it has been equipped with a dedicated solar array, and has zero reliance on fossil fuels for store operations. This enables the store to run on 100% renewable energy, making it completely carbon neutral.

“At Apple, our customers are at the center of everything we do, and our teams are excited to celebrate this wonderful moment with them as we open our first retail store in India,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “Apple BKC is a reflection of Mumbai’s vibrant culture and brings together the best of Apple in a beautiful, welcoming space for connection and community.”

The architecture of the Apple BKC does not fail at all. Much like its counterparts over the world, it has been designed exquisitely – featuring a triangular handcrafted timber ceiling that graciously extends beyond the glass facade to the underside of the exterior canopy – showcasing the unique and innovative geometry of the store. Each tile in the ceiling is made using 408 pieces of timber, therein forming 31 modules per tile, with a total of 1000 tiles making up the entirety of the ceiling. All of the 45,000 individual timber elements were assembled in New Delhi.

As you enter the store, you are welcomed by two stone walls sourced from Rajasthan and an impressive 14-meter-long stainless steel staircase that connects the ground level and the cantilevered mezzanine. In addition to the well-designed architecture, the Apple BKC store has employed more than 100 team members that collectively speak over 20 languages. It also features an Apple Pickup option which allows customers to place an order online, and pick up their products when they like – making their Apple shopping experience a seamless and smooth one.

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Affordable solar homes – a solution for homeowner poverty & net-zero housing!

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Net-zero architecture is what will reduce emissions from the construction industry on a large scale. But make it inclusive as well as scalable and you also get a solution that can lift homeowners out of poverty while building a community! Created for that very purpose, these solar homes are aiming to help solve both the global housing and climate crises with one design. The houses produce their energy, harvest 100% of the rainwater, clean their sewage, and also have the potential to grow their own food!

It is called the PowerHYDE housing model and was created by Prasoon Kumar and Robert Verrijt of Billion Bricks from India and Singapore. The model explores sustainable solutions to empower and facilitate growth opportunities for people without homes around Southeast Asia which has a lot of rural and low-income populations. These homes not only provide shelter but are also a power module to scale sustainable communities that lift homeowners out of poverty!




“A BillionBricks Community is the world’s first carbon-negative solar home community to bring families out of poverty within one generation. PowerHYDE homes are plug-and-play modular structures that do not need any connection to services and could be made functional from the day of completion of construction,” says the design team. The cost-effective solution even won a Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction!

affordable-solar-home

The PowerHYDE homes are built via an indigenous prefabricated technique that makes them easy to assemble in remote locations. The home has a solar array installed on the roof and the homeowner can sell excess power generated back to power companies, generating a profit that helps to pay off the cost of the home. Sample homes have been built in Mathjalgaon Village in India and in the Philippines. BillionBricks now plans to build a community of 500 homes near Manila, Philippines that will generate 10 megawatts of power.

Not only does it reduce the emissions from the construction industry (which is the leading contributor in the world for CO2 emissions) but it also helps more people become homeowners while equipping them with means to create renewable energy thus reducing individual carbon footprint as well. It is a radical concept in housing designed for energy sufficiency, extreme affordability, and education for future generations to adapt to a sustainable lifestyle even in rural areas.

Designers: BillionBricks and Architecture BRIO

The post Affordable solar homes – a solution for homeowner poverty & net-zero housing! first appeared on Yanko Design.

A staggered green roof gives this educational building organic architecture with sustainable building practices!

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Envisioned in Indore, India by Sanjay Puri Architects, Prestige University is a mixed-use educational building that combines sustainable building practices with organic architecture.

With plans for a 100-acre university campus in the works, Sanjay Puri Architects completed the designs for the campus’s prospective administrative buildings. Located in Indore, India, Prestige University blends organic architecture with sustainable building practices to take full advantage of the environment’s natural resources and climate. Defined by staggered green terraces that gradually ascend towards a 20-meter high apex, Prestige University strikes a balance between interior function and outdoor comfort.

Inspired by traditional Indian architecture, Sanjay Puri Architects first looked to Indore’s natural climate and local resources to build energy-efficient and sustainable infrastructure. Coming from the cavities formed by the top-level green terraces, fractured sunlight and plenty of ventilation pour in through the second-floor ceiling of Prestige University, where the bulk of classrooms are located.

With plenty of access to natural lighting and ventilation, Prestige University found heat mitigation through the site’s 20-meter tall brick screen that works to absorb most of the light and heat that pours down from the sun on the buildings east, west, and south sides. On the exterior level, Sanjay Puri Architects envisioned recreational activities taking place on the multi-tiered green terraces.

Designed to be a mixed-use building, Prestige University will house a library, cafeteria, and multiple seminar halls, amongst other facilities just beneath the rows of green terraces. On the structure’s ground level, students and faculty can find a cafeteria, auditorium, and various administrative offices. Then, in a similar fashion to colosseums’ underground tunnels, Prestige University’s first-floor library rooms are connected by an internal bridge that crosses over the diagonal indoor street.

Designer: Sanjay Puri Architects

Natural sunlight pours in through the cavities made by the multi-tiered green terraces. 

Ground-level courtyards provide a green oasis for eateries and seminar halls. 

The post A staggered green roof gives this educational building organic architecture with sustainable building practices! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This tiny tea café fits in a 1.5 sq. ft. fold-out box on the back of a Vespa

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Ask any Indian what their country runs on and the answer will inevitably come, “Chai”. Introduced to the country by the British and the Portuguese, Chai (or tea) is as much of a legacy to India as the New York Pizza Slice or the Chicago Deep Dish is to America. We’ve taken the drink and co-opted it, introducing our rich culture and complex flavors and spices to what’s otherwise a simple beverage of tea leaves, water, milk, and sugar. Today, chai can be found everywhere – At tiny roadside stalls in the city or on highways, and even in the up-market urban Chai cafés that are the “tea-quivalent” of Starbucks. However, possibly the most iconic form of Chai is found on the roads, sold by people on push-carts or even out of canteens on the back of scooters. The CHAIGAADI builds on that culture, modernizing it and turning it into even more of an icon.

ChaiGaadi is the world’s tiniest tea stall ever made. At just 1.5 sq. ft, the foldable tea stall fits right on the back of a Vespa, allowing the tea vendor to easily set up shop anywhere and sell tea along with select confectionery and snacks. Everything fits right into a 1.5 sq. ft. box that’s mounted on the back of a Vespa. Designed to work like a food truck, traveling from location to location (and often parking outside large offices in the evenings to businessmen can get their ‘chai break’), the ChaiGaadi can be set up anywhere in minutes. The box opens out into an elaborate setup comprising a copper tea boiler, a cup-warming tray fitted with signature ‘cutting chai’ drinking glasses, a tray for confectionery like buns and tea-cakes, and a fold-out counter for serving your wares and collecting cash. Once consumed, used tea glasses can even be docked in a special tray on the side, along with a small compartment for food waste.

The copper construction on the tea boiler is a bit of creative fusion from the designer, Arun Prabhu. Inspired by the copper glasses used by Turkish baristas to brew their coffee, the ChaiGaadi’s copper boiler relies on the metal’s conductivity while hinting at that cultural inspiration from the Middle East. Vents on the top of the boiler serve two purposes. Not only do they help keep the chai-glasses above warm (the vendor or ‘chaiwallah could pre-pour 10-15 glasses to quickly serve hot to customers), but they even occasionally let out steam, spreading the familiar whiff of strong milky tea in the air.

“We spent months prototyping, itching to find the right balance between usability and the skeleton of the structure”, says Arun Prabhu, founder of cross-disciplinary design and research firm The BILLBOARDS® Collective, and the designer of the ChaiGaadi. Touted as the world’s tiniest tea café, the ChaiGaadi was designed for Hyderabad-based cafe chain, Chai Kahaani, and is currently going through testing and trials as it prepares for an eventual nationwide rollout.

Designer: Arun Prabhu NG

India’s government threatens to jail Twitter employees unless they block critics

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India’s government has warned Twitter that it must obey its orders to remove “inflammatory content” or employees will face potential jail time, Buzzfeed has reported. The government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made the edict after Twitter un...