Text description provided by the architects. The Jewel Box is designed to retail precious stones, and accommodate administrative offices. The building is shaped by both program and the geometries of crystals.
A series of design processes then dictate the malleability of the facades – our first inferences stemmed from raw crystal and its highly fractured attributes. We then aimed to rationalize the facets through several stages of refinement while ensuring a perceptible relationship between fenestration and the internal functions. However on the outside, the ‘bevels’ aspire to camouflage this relationship and become many parts of a homogeneous whole.
The beveled façade is 75mm thick, cast-in situ using ferrocement technology and light enough to be hung off the main RC structure. On the inside, the ‘bevels’ create a variety of edge conditions; therefore, each floor therefore gets a different set of views - of the immediate and distant context.