About the Project
Dharmaram College is a major study house of CMI Congregation, established in Bangalore in 1957. The name 'Dharmaram' is a combination of two Sanskrit words, dharma (virtue) and aram (garden), which together mean 'GARDEN OF VIRTUES'. Dharmaram is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the motto is Isabhakti Paramjnanam (Love of God is the Supreme Wisdom). Dharmaram aims at educating people who are prepared to commit themselves to the service of the Church and the world, which is accomplished through a holistic, spiritual, intellectual and cultural formation. Dharmaram Chapel, a dome shaped structure, was constructed 40 years back in 1967, and serves as the centre for offering prayers. The dome was built in the form of a column-less egg shell structure.
Challenges at the Site
The priests at Dharmaram College wanted to renovate their prayer room with an acoustical dome ceiling, following the existing ceiling design. The existing ceiling had a 3 level step down segmented curve. Architect involved was DWP Interics and Acoustical Consultant - MMG Consultants, Bangalore. In the beginning, the client had presented the ceilings to various Gypsum contractors / Local metal ceiling vendors for this task. However, all of them regretted the job owing to the complexity involved in this project. At last, the client approached Armstrong India. There were a lot of challenges involved. Since no reference drawing were available, understanding the requirement was challenging. Thus B-H 300 Custom Metal Ceiling solution was proposed. As this was 100% customized in nature and challenging in terms of manufacturing and installation, convincing the Architect / Acoustical Consultant / Client on Armstrong’s timely delivery of the project, considering the short lead time, was challenging.
Solution
Following approval on the solution by the client, there were multiple site visits with Project manager and Service team to understand the requirement indepth. You Inspire Solution Center(YISC) team provided drawing veri cation set for the site measurements, which was conducted by involving a site surveyor. Based on these
measurements, YISC provided the final set of submittal drawings to the client and Architect and received a clearance for manufacturing. To ensure the structural stability of the Dome, some tests were
conducted at site. Also, the chief designer of the Dome was contacted to get his insights.YISC conducted internal mock-ups during manufacturing to ensure the high quality standards meet. A detailed training was also imparted to the Installation team to prepare them for site execution. After receipt of the material, another round of check was done at the site to double check the quality standards. Installation was also challenging, since the installation was at huge height and the entire arena was scaffolded, making material movement very dif cult. Eventually, the project was executed successfully well before Christmas 2016.
