20/10/2024
Revisiting a project from the year 2000-2002.
Courtyards & verandahs are two most important spaces for a house in the hot & humid Indian climate. A very much of the life is lived in these two spaces. The thing about courtyard is that it creates cross ventilation in the house and keeps the house cooler. Together these offer defence against extreme summer.
This house that we designed, all the spaces are built around the courtyard & the core of the house. The rooms have a defence system in form of covered verandahs on the exteriors especially deeper verandahs on the south side. The verandahs have another line of defence in the form of landscaping in the lawns & terraces. What it also does is that the air passes thro’ the landscape and becomes cooler when it enters the verandah, verandahs already have a lower temperature, so the cool air enter the rooms. The courtyard in the centre pull warm air upwards thus creating a flow of cool air in the house.
This house was located in Faridabad around the Aravali Hills range, the stone from this range is a beautiful red blue quartzite stone. When I went to see the site, on the way I passed thro’ the hills and I thought that we can use this stone in structure & also in interiors to create an architectural expression. Similarly we used stones for flooring from nearby areas, yellow Jaiselmere, Kota stone, White Marble & black Kudapah stone.
Application of local materials & skills resulted in aesthetics unique to that place where this house is located.
This was designed in 2000, the inhabitants were a couple in late 30s, their parents and two kids. It was designed as a low cost building. The client’s wife is a fashion designer and carried on with her work from the house with tailors in the multi purpose room and display boutique in the basement. In last 22 years the house has been able to accommodate all the changes that took place as the family grew. It was satisfying that I could design a house which became the extension of the lives of the inhabitants and offered them positive changes over the time. Dissatisfying because the final finishing didn’t happen the way I had imagined as the clients shifted in the unpainted and un-landscaped house due to unforeseen financial constraints."
