When we speak about a “habitable arch”, it is important to understand that this is not merely a flashy gesture. From the outset, the client’s brief was formulated in very straightforward terms: the building had to rise above an active and highly congested transport infrastructure – the MCD, railway tracks, and a high-speed highway. At the same time, traffic could not be halted at any stage.

For this reason, we immediately moved toward detailed engineering development and worked in close coordination with the structural engineers. A key co-author of the project was the team at Project 2018, which has a large and highly experienced structural engineering group. Together, we developed a phased construction scheme: first, two towers are erected on either side of the highway; then the main truss structures are assembled at ground level, gradually “rolled in” and lifted into place by cranes – without prolonged road closures, within carefully calculated nighttime windows.

None of these scenarios were abstract. They were thoroughly drawn, calculated, and discussed with engineers. For us, this was a fundamental point: to demonstrate that even such a radical form can be entirely feasible, provided that architects and structural engineers work as a unified team from the very beginning.