Brick By Brick

Bricks are a traditional medium for design and yet they carry within them the potential to bring together the old and the new in innovative ways. The seven projects featured here represent beautiful designs created by understanding the aesthetics, history and yet untapped potential of this incredible element. And rather than hide it, they celebrate it, just like us!

- Arushi Chaturvedi

Drawing inspiration from the lush greenery of the neighborhood of this west-facing plot, we sought to explore how natural light and outside greenery can be brought inside the house. One enters the house through a patterned brick pathway alongside the parking for two cars and reaches an east-facing entry foyer. The building has been majorly enclosed in exposed brick to merge in to the surroundings,w in contrast to the minimal white colour walls and concrete finish accents. In every detail in the exterior too, we have tried to attain an eclectic mix of ethnic or vernacular forms and finishes with a modern twist.

d6thD has arranged the program into a H-shaped plan, conceptualized around the idea of two distinct ‘green room’ spaces. An indoor courtyard and outdoor garden area reference traditional modes of living, blurring the line between interior and exterior to the point where one runs seamlessly into the other. A fascinating drop-off area semi-covered by wooden pergola and a lily water body lead you towards the corbelled brick wall entrance with two small Nandi idols which references the religious distinctiveness of the owners’ attachment.

The twisted brick columns greet visitors to home, and support a stone verandah which divides the house into separated public and private areas. Series of twisted brick column around courtyard adds drama into the welcoming gesture. The materials and techniques employed in this house are not only time tested and reliable but clearly reflect a cultural and climate sensitivity towards the area the foundation is of random rubble stone masonry, and the 14” load bearing exposed brick walls in quetta bond act as thermal insulators.