Inward Looking Courtyard House…

This assignment gave us an opportunity to design a bungalow within a densely populated area.

With homes nestling cheek by jowl, people often search for individuality for their houses within such neighborhood. This craving to stand out often manifests as a loud architectural statement -which has to perform two paradoxical tasks: match with the street context and, at the same time, act in resistance to the neighborhood around to some extent. Thus the task become quite interesting. The site is closed from three sides, with the fourth ‘free’ road-facing side to the north. This brought to the fore the challenge of reconciling the requirements of privacy (the distance to the house across the street is hardly 9’), ventilation and daylight penetration. The design approach was pragmatic, focusing on creating a mass structure, carved with interesting spaces and volumes within. The staggered internal spaces, double height volumes, fenestration and visual links further add an interesting dimension to the design. Use of the strategically placed courtyard and landscaped areas and its texture make it a fascinating space. Often the simplest space leaves the most profound of impact. A somewhat same thing happens with the inward-looking courtyard house.

LOCATION

The site is located in a densely-populated lower middle-class residential neighbourhood, with homes nestling cheek by jowl. The footprint of the plot is a compact 1080 sq ft, with laws capping built-up at twice the plot area. Though the clients had the option to relocate to more congenial surroundings, their emotional and ancestral attachment to the site was very strong, and thus the decision to refurbish and redevelop their existing home. This improvement, however, had to be done sensitively: projecting affluence through architectural form or material usage were anathema, as that would result in a certain disassociation from the social fabric of the locality.

SPATIAL PROGRAMME