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.
