American School of Bombay — Elementary School

When the American School of Bombay relocated its Lower School about 3.5 kilometres from the Bandra Kurla Complex to a new seven-storey tower in the Kohinoor Complex in Kurla, EDI was appointed as the architects to redesign the building — acquired mid-construction as a commercial property — into the school’s new elementary campus. The brief carried unusual constraints: new security requirements, a commercial kitchen, a rooftop swimming pool, and façade changes the original structure had never anticipated, all to open in just eight months.

Despite a design window of only a few weeks, EDI ran on-site charrettes with ASB’s leadership and engineering teams, and the design that emerged prioritized adaptability — so the school could change curriculum and pedagogy later without major construction. The completed school opened on schedule in the autumn of 2012, replacing cramped, dimly lit classrooms with spacious, daylit learning studios. Sliding doors connect each studio to a large commons that serves as a decentralized library and a hub for hands-on collaboration, while lightweight, movable partitions let the floors be reconfigured easily and affordably.

Because a centralized library would have been hard to reach across a multi-storey building, ASB chose comfortable reading commons within each learning community instead, alongside enclosed small-group rooms, balconies, and outdoor play zones carved from the limited site. A follow-up visit in 2017 found the spaces still working as intended, five years on.