What would it be like to work in an office, where you could intersperse work with tiny breaks that may include a pleasant stroll, a brisk walk through a tree-lined avenue, hanging out with friends at a garden bench or perhaps just gaze into the horizon in solitude? Well, at the Ramanujan IT City, located in the heart of Chennai, you could do this. Main Street Architecture, a concept that encourages occupants of an office or IT Park to break out of the sedentary patterns associated with desk jobs, is part of the structure’s design.
When you step out of any of the offices here, you step into a ‘Main Street’ with tree-lined walkways, sheltered porches, podiums, casual seating fixtures, gardens, water bodies and even a yoga square. In fact, on this Main Street, you would feel the wind tearing through your hair, as you would on a beach, because it’s actually about 35 feet above ground level. The raised level and free space draws in a forceful breeze all through the day. It is paved with granite and stone and sports foliage like variegated spider lily, Champa trees, Mexican petunia, bougainvillea, golden duranta shrubs and fern trees. The Main Street runs all around the office space, ranging in width from 80 feet to an expansive 100 feet. Dr. C. Velan, Executive Director and CEO, Ramanujan IT City, says, “The idea was to create an environment where IT professionals don’t experience the campus as a concrete jungle, but as an energy-efficient green space with high floor efficiency. Ramanujan IT City is one of the very few developments in the country awarded with all four certifications that includes ISO 50001 for energy management, ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environment management and ISO 18001 for safety and health management. It is also the first multi-tenanted green building (LEED Gold Certified) SEZ in Chennai.” State-of-the-art waste management systems that include a membrane bio-reactor sewage treatment system are operational here. Designed by U.S. architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill (the firm which designed Burj Khalifa in Abu Dhabi), and constructed by Leighton of Australia, this IT city hosts 4.5 million square feet of office space and a 1,500-seater international Convention Centre, besides a 100-room service apartment. “Besides, it is equipped with amenities like ATMs, banks, a food court, 24x7 medical emergency centre, gymnasium, pharmacy, mobile phone centre and department store,” says Sridhar Ramani , DGM – Sales & Marketing, TRIL Infopark Ltd. This IT Park has been jointly developed by Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd (TRIL), Indian Hotels Company Ltd (Taj group) and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Company (TIDCO).
