AHMEDABAD IS A CITY WHERE THE SUN TENDS TO BE SAVAGE. YET KHOSLA ASSOCIATES

TEASE OUT THE DRAMA OF LIGHT AND SHADE IN THIS NEW FAMILY HOME, BUILT IN THEIR FAVOURED MATERIALS OF RIVER-FINISHED KOTA STONE, COOL TERRAZZO FLOORS, AND WELL-OILED RIBBED TIMBER.

- RAJASHREE BALARAM

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s most populous city, summers have always been dictated by a raging dry heat; this year, it inched to an unbearable 45 degrees Celsius in the middle of May. It’s not exactly a place to feel poetic about the sun then, but that’s exactly what architects Sandeep Khosla and Amaresh Anand seem to have felt when they designed Abhikram, a two-storeyed home sitting on a one-acre property in an upcoming residential area. The place is an anomaly in the way it keeps it cool, even when it’s blazing hot outside. “We have designed tropical homes all over South India,” says Khosla. “But this was our first project in Ahmedabad, a place where climate responsiveness has become critical given the average daytime temperature.”

For a long time now, Khosla and Anand have been resolutely pre-emptive about climate action. Here, the duo’s design abounds with pergolas, arched overhangs, louvres, high ceilings, double-walled bedrooms to minimize heat penetration, and pitched roofs to counter heavy rainfall. “We had to think of design strategies that would keep the heat away from the building,” says Anand. “There is no point in letting heat penetrate the building and then use energy to cool it down. Glass, as we all know, traps heat so we have not used much of it here.”