 OLDE BANGALORE, that’s how we have named our club house
Bangalore is unrecognizable today from the very serene and friendly place that it was when most Utopians were growing up. Olde Bangalore, our club on Utopia, is a throw-back to that age of leisure and simplicity. Visualised by Architects, Chitra Vishwanath and Martin, its open-spaced design is an invitation for its patrons to put their feet up and enjoy a lazy afternoon ( with a glass of Beer, of course ) or let their hair down and enjoy a rocking, pool-side Do! But that’s only the beginning of the infinite possibilities that a place like Olde Bangalore can offer.
A tour of Olde Bangalore is not such a bad idea to understand the thought that’s gone behind the making of Olde Bangalore. Olde Bangalore was in fact planned as a place for Corporate Training to which recreational facilities were added. Residents can gain access to Olde Bangalore from the Residential Layout but if you are a corporate member, you could enter through the separate gate from the main road!
 You enter the building itself from the very thoughtfully designed Entrance Lobby. You could take the steps, the ramp, or if you are arthritic, you could even use the Hydraulic Lift so that you don’t need to bend your knees! All corridors in the building are extra-wide in order to enable the wheel-chair using patron to get anywhere without assistance.
 The ceramic mural behind the reception, visualized and set up by Kiran and Roshan, depicts the history of Bangalore from the times of Kempe Gowda, through the British attacks on Tipu Sultan and right down to the flyovers today! It’s worth spending a little time here deciphering all the information on this mural. This will stock most of the bread, pastries and other delicious fare produced in our in-house bakery besides being an informal meeting place to exchange views on any topic worth discussing and many that aren’t over a coffee split in two – Bangalore’s timeless gift to the world at large!
“By Two” overlooks the indoor Badminton court in the basement.
 The badminton court could also double as a dance floor and is flanked by Table-Tennis, Billiards and Pool. The basement also houses a Pantry, Dining Space and Rest Areas for the staff besides a fully equipped Bakery. The Maintenance Room, large Store Room and the Back Office complete the activities in this very busy basement.
 Moving back out of the Coffee shop, we come across wide corridors leading to other interesting areas in Olde Bangalore. The corridors are kept wide through the building so that our patrons on wheel-chairs can get around with minimal help. Tucked away in a quiet corner and overlooking landscaped areas is the Mind-Games arena, a treat for those wanting to spend a few, quiet hours playing Chess or Bridge. A small pantry within this area will also ensure that players don’t have to leave their positions just to get a beer or a snack. Of course, if you do swig one beer too many, the toilets are just a couple of meters away. Yes, we did think of almost everything!
Moving away from here for just about 50 feet will bring you face to face with the
charming hostess at our fine dining multi-cuisine restaurant, “SOUTH PARADE” but if you missed the right turn, you would end up in our watering hole, “HIC!”.
South Parade, incidentally, is what Bangalore’s MG Road was called before independence!
The Kitchen at Olde Bangalore is any Chef’s delight and is worth a visit every time you are dining here. Not for us the hectic Dinner date of 45 minutes! If you are dining at South Parade, you could ask our Chef for a tour of the kitchen,  watch our cooks rustle up your order and perhaps learn the recipe of your favourite dish on our menu – all, nicely old-worldish, like it was many years back in a more leisurely era! The operations here are geared to also train people from less fortunate backgrounds and give them a leg up in life into one of the sunshine industries today – hospitality! Both, South Parade and Hic! Have service outside the four walls overlooking landscaped areas and the pool.
What’s more, South Parade also has a small wooden dance floor if a small gathering gets into the mood to do the Cha-Cha-Cha!
 The Pool is a no-nonsense, 25-meter, 6-lane exercise pool! All the lanes are marked to help kids compete because most Utopians will have their kids growing up here! By not making it in some fancy shape, we have also ensured that swimmers can count the laps they have done. The pool has steps leading down into it for anybody who is physically challenged. Have you noticed, in Bangalore, if you plan a pool-side party, more often than not, a large rain-drop makes a loud splash in your guest-of-honour’s first drink and all hell breaks loose, dampening spirits and dousing everybody’s fire!? By putting a roof over the poolside party area and stretching it a bit into the pool, we have made sure that pool-side parties here will remain pool-side!
Climbing up onto the First Floor, we can stride into the large Gym and Aerobics area at Utopia.  There are lockers within the large change rooms so that one can change into appropriate gear for both the aerobics and the Gym work. At a later date, we hope to be using the same space to change for the Spa. The Gym would have a lot of Aerobic Equipment like Tread-mills and Steppers as well as weight training equipment including a multi-gym. We are looking at enabling users to wheel out aerobic equipment into the wide corridors and using them in the open.
This level is also home to the 2 Seminar Rooms at Utopia, Hall(Big) and Hall(Small).
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Hall(Big) can easily accommodate over a 200 people, sitting theatre-style while
Hall(Small) would be a comfortable space for about 40-50 participants. The Seminar Rooms could also used for other purposes, limited only by imagination. The High Ceilings, Ventilators, Louvered windows and Doors, Open-Brick construction and Clay Flooring is very reminiscent of a bygone, more leisurely era. Hopefully, this will unclutter minds and help them absorb all that is discussed in there!
Hall(Big) also has a large open but roofed area outside its western door where food can be laid out from the large pantry right next door. A lift in the kitchen downstairs brings all the food into this pantry and tables are wheeled out and in. This area can also be used for training activities once the tables are wheeled back into the pantry. This, one feels, would go a great way in reducing the amount of time taken especially over Lunch as in most places, people have to go into the restaurant for lunch, from where they stray into other places and it’s quite a task for the trainer to gather the flock back!
Hall(Small), the smaller Seminar Room also has a small area where lunch can be laid out. There is even a facility for a small bar to be set up and would be an ideal venue for events such as previews of ad / documentary films. Product launches, etc. where a spot of beer over lunch is not such a bad idea! This would also ensure that people don’t run into each other even if there are separate events happening simultaneously at Big and Small halls!
The 2 seminar rooms share common infrastructure in increasing / decreasing seating and equipment as well as the Business Centre for Resource Books, Faxes, e-mail, photo-copying, etc.
A separate smoking area behind Takshashila completes the layout of space on this level!
The building of Olde Bangalore itself has been an experiment in ecologically-responsible architecture! All the bricks that make the walls of Olde Bangalore have been made from the mud excavated out of the basement. These bricks have been baked in the sun and have therefore saved a considerable quantity of a non-renewable natural resource like coal that would otherwise have been used in baking. All the western walls of the building have a roof overhang of between 6 to as much as 20 feet so that the hot afternoon sun does not hit the walls. While we get plenty of light, the heat is avoided, thus obviating the necessity to cool the building down. This effect is accentuated by creating plenty of ventilation within the building with open spaces and ventilated walls. The result is that we have a building that is at least 3 – 4 degrees cooler than the outside, in-shade temperatures! Not more than 5 % of the building will need air-conditioning, not only saving on electricity and avoiding emissions but also transporting us back in time to a Bangalore that would so sparingly use even a fan! Add to this the huge capacity we have created to harvest rainwater, including a separate 80,000-litre rainwater sump in the kitchen and wells in the parks and you would begin to understand the huge possibilities that responsible construction has for the ecology! |
