Vertical GFRC Fins for School Facade
Product: GFRC Fin
Colour: White
Texture: Smooth
Architect: Surya Kakani
Client: Mr. Vivek Patel
Installer: The Concrete SHOP®
Year:2025
Location: Ahmedabad
A school facade facing Ahmedabad's sun has to solve a problem before it solves for appearance: how much direct light reaches the classrooms behind it, and at what cost to the view out. At Anand Niketan School, architect Surya Kakani answered that with a facade built almost entirely from vertical fins deep, closely set GFRC blades running the full height of the building, doing the work a flat wall or plain glazing line couldn't.
The fins' depth is what makes them functional rather than decorative. Set proud of the glazing behind them, they cut direct low-angle sun before it reaches the windows, while still allowing filtered daylight and ventilation through the gaps between blades. Casting each fin in GFRC gave the project a way to repeat that exact profile depth, edge, and spacing across the full width of the tower without the dimensional drift a site-built shading system would accumulate over so many repeated elements. The reduced weight of GFRC compared to precast concrete or stone also meant the fins could project further from the facade without overloading the structure supporting them.
Finished in smooth white, the fins read as a single rhythm rather than individual elements a facade that changes character through the day as the sun moves behind and between the blades, offering shade and modulated light in equal measure to the classrooms it protects.
