An ambitious and architecturally daring residential high-rise is currently under construction for the wealthiest sector of Kolkatan society. The developers have named it Atmosphere. It’s advertised as potentially “your home in the clouds.” Here are some views and nightscapes from the 38th floor of the yet uncompleted towers.
Atmosphere will feature a ‘Deya’ sky bridge, which will link the two towers (‘Deya’ is the Bengali transliteration for cloud). The development will also boast a pool, cinema, golf area and basketball court suspended more than 100m above the ground. The building is currently being filmed by National Geographic as part of their Megastructures series.
On the day I photographed these views, the plume index of air quality hit 200 on the scale — that’s “extreme pollution” — washing the sky with a purple haze as the sun came down.
On the side of the building a large banner reads, We thought the skyline could do with a little bit of innovation. Atmosphere: Your home in the clouds. For most, however, the arrival of the new and exclusive residential buildings will not herald a new home in the clouds. It will change the visual landscape of this part of the city.
The ‘new view’ for most of the 14 million plus people who live in the metropolitan area will be of the impressive two towers and gravity-defying bridge that links them. 80 families, or 0.0006% of the population, will have a previously-unseen new view over the city of Kolkata.
This is a glimpse of what they will see.
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- These images were first exhibited at Cloakroom Kolkata’s pop-up haat, December 2015.
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