Glass Is Good, Glass Is Green

Delhi was just starting to get warm, and the drive to Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan’s office in Vasant Kunj was largely devoid of traffic. The well-maintained, welcoming entrance to the building seemed to be indicative of the mindset of its occupants.

Sure enough, Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan turned out to be an extremely warm and approachable person. That we took the liberty of setting up the conference room for the shoot without his permission, an act which evoked an approving smile and nod, proved us right.

After an initial informal discussion over tea, Ar. Chauhan was ready to shoot. After talking about how he started two architecture firms, TCS and DFI along with fellow architects some years ago, Ar. Chauhan started to talk about his projects and the use of glass in them.

Among their notable projects in the retail space is Select City Walk Mall in South Delhi. Spread over 1.3 million sq feet, this mall has used glass extensively in its interiors - at shop fronts through the use of seamless glass for visibility to the outdoors, and also in the atrium skylight for optimum daylighting.

Talking of residential multi-story buildings, Ar. Chauhan emphasized the right choice of glass for glazing purposes, and giving people homes that let the external landscape flow in. In the IT space, Cyberwalk in Manesar stood out as one DFI’s most prestigious projects, being a LEED Gold rated structure.

Ar. Chauhan concluded superbly by drawing an architectural diagram on a sheet of white opaque glass from Saint-Gobain that covered one entire wall of the conference room. “To have a large wall like this to draw on is every architect’s dream come true”, he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Video Part 2

Glass is good, glass is green, glass is modern architecture, said Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan. We couldn’t agree more.