lime house 6

The site was linear, with the shorter sides to North & South, and measured about 315 sq.m. The street access from the north, the common shared wall to the East, adjacent homes typically two stories high to the south and west defined the periphery. A large neem tree in the SW corner and a large peepal tree to the NW corner were the essential counterpoints.

Context : The Dwelling & the City

The Usmanpura area of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, saw the growth of the city to the
north-west, across the Sabarmati river, between 1970 and 1980, characterized by
clearly defined parcels of land, enabling modest low rise residential developments of privately owned plots and dwellings. Traders from  Jain business communities who migrated from Rajasthan in the early 60’s, had settled here, defining the character of this locality with its many local temples, upashrayas (place where Jain monks reside) and allied community spaces.

The Site:

The local typology & the new insert: The ‘twin bungalow type’ with a common wall defines the residential typology in this area. Set within a dense residential fabric, our site had a similar configuration, where one such unit  was to be demolished and re-built, keeping intact, the neighbor's wall and home. The new dwelling would be the ‘insert’

The Brief:

The client brief was simple. A building which addressed climatic issues of the hot dry region in sustainable ways with considered material resilience and also be Vaastu compliant. They also spelt out clear defined needs of a nuclear family of four with private spaces as well as common zones for the family, and socio-religious occasions. Being a devout Jain family, the home was also meant
to be a ‘place’ for travelling monks to rest and host other devotees.

client:

shah family

location:

usmanpura, ahmedabad, gujarat

design team:

uday andhare, mausami andhare, anurag rajput, tejaswini deshpande, yash mehta

consultants:

structural consultant: ami engineers, mehul shah; plumbing consultant : jaycon consultants, vaishali mewada; civil contractors: vpan civil consultants, atul nandankar & vishal patel; carpentry work: dungarsinh mistry, ahmedabad; fabrication work: khodiyar engineering works, bhavesh panchal

site area:

315 sq. mtrs.

building area:

675 sq. mtrs.

completion year:

2022

photo credits:

uday andhare, nipun prabhakar

The Architectural design strategy: The house re-interprets the organization of the ‘Pol house Type’ seen in medieval Ahmedabad as a response both, to the site conditions, dimensionality and the intent to be climatically appropriate. The strategy embodies learnings from traditional elements such as shared continuous walls and the courtyard as modulator of light and ventilation.  The stairwell is the unifier of space through movement acting like a fulcrum.

The Plan: The plan is linear, layered  and deep; Punctuated by variations of scale and defined functions, but visually porous. The plinth is raised from the street for privacy and at the same time defines the elevated threshold to the house.

The sequence of the living room, dining space and the private rest space deep inside, adjacent to the kitchen, is reminiscent of  the privacy gradient seen in the traditional type. The linear movement from the main door to the kitchen and beyond is the axis that strings the spaces together. Visual and spatial porosity are important considerations in the plan.

The Section: The floors stack one over the other held by the stair volume defining the vertical axis. Movement around the core happens as an ambulatory experience. The long-shared east wall with the neighbour, acts as a continuous shield from the morning to mid-day.  The skylight over the stair well is oriented to catch the west breeze and ventilates the core of the house both during the
day and night. It also unites all the spaces across three levels fusing the different spaces into a cohesive whole and  affords a striking visual connect within the interior space. Light plays across the volume in the late afternoon, bringing interesting hues shadows and patterns. A system of operable ventilators puncturing the east wall and the north and south sides on the upper floor, enables cross ventilation. Along the NS axis, the house opens towards the north at all levels to draw a connect to the view of the street and vegetation around.

Special features:

Materials & Systems
– Sustainability & Thermal Comfort.

Structure : Confined masonry walls use bricks made from repurposed surkhi, lime, fly ash and cement. Hot lime mortar slaked and processed at site was used in the mortar for the masonry as well as rough plaster. All RCC work was integral to the masonry, making it a composite structural system.

Walls & Surfaces
: Dolomitic lime plaster on the exterior provides excellent emissivity to reject heat from the building surface to the infra-red spectrum. Natural pigmented dolomite and plain dolomitic white lime is used on internal walls. Paint is used only on the metal work.

Doors & Windows: Upcycled timber from old homes was used to make timber doors, timber louvered windows and reduce the use of glass significantly. All timber is finished with linseed oil, hot water and wax known as ‘Tel-Pani ‘ finish locally.

Flooring: Upcycled timber boards and river washed Kota stone was used in the entire house.

Insulation & Finishes: China mosaic was used on the roof top over an insulated layer of Light expanded clay aggregate & perlite.

Rain water harvesting: Rain water harvested from the roof is stored for drinking, cooking and circulation within the roof slab for cooling.

Thermal draining of structure: Stored rainwater is circulated through  piping integrated within the roof slab and is used as a radiant cooling and a thermal draining device. Using the thermal fly wheel principal, it helps lower the roof top temperature and prevent heat absorption and radiation of heat within.

This project is an attempt to integrate these tenets to discover an expressive language free from the obvious visual transposition of the traditional. Ordering principles, scale, form and articulation of elements enable space making which responds to present day climatic challenges.

The Architectural design strategy: The house re-interprets the organization of the ‘Pol house Type’ seen in medieval Ahmedabad as a response both, to the site conditions, dimensionality and the intent to be climatically appropriate. The strategy embodies learnings from traditional elements such as shared continuous walls and the courtyard as modulator of light and ventilation.  The stairwell is the unifier of space through movement acting like a fulcrum.

The Plan: The plan is linear, la. . .
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