CANTILEVER HOUSE GHAZIABAD

Regional Vernacular to Reimagine Contemporary Living, Zero Energy Design (ZED) Lab

The Cantilever House draws from the regional vernacular and finds expression through a contemporary lens to become a home for a family of four. Located in the Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad, the house is designed in response to the clients’ love for the outdoors. It employs a series of mechanisms that minimize resource consumption, and reduce the building’s environmental impact while enhancing the residents’ thermal comfort.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

The large cantilevers that the house derives its name from, anchor its design vocabulary, highlighting the scale of the building and breaking its mass through the focus on horizontality. The primary challenge was to design the frame with judicious use of steel for economic viability, given that the cantilevers form a dominant part of the design scheme and a typical one demands adequate steel reinforcement to generate structural integrity. Additionally, the design received scepticism from the client, and workers on the site had to be trained to execute the construction with precision. The overarching design intent, however, was to create a sense of privacy while channelling an open, connected environment for the family. This took shape through an interesting interplay of living spaces, with the main living areas occupying the ground floor and the private areas located on the first floor.