This project is a further exploration of the concept of a reconstruction of the contemporary urban house. It is the notion of a linear unit-space to which potential conceptual spatial elements that exist as fragments of Indian memory, reconfigure with the exigencies of site and context, to make for a contemporary urban spatiality.
Living, dining and study make up the basic single unit (within which the study is a differentiated zone). About this is layered the southwest thickened wall (part services tuck into this) which breaks down towards the south into stout pilastered verandah supports to filter the West light through. The location of the verandah is critical.
© Mathew and Ghosh Architects
- From the conventional relationship of verandah-street a significant translocation occurs as now the verandah shifts in to meet garden (nature) in a gesture that seeks to restore that dwindling space and relationship -- a restoration of the balance between man-made and natural in a busy metropolis.
- The street side is thus expressed as stark wall -- a private world, with a prominent street court lifted at an upper level, which enables the dweller to be a spectator, by choice.
- The basic linear module for living is flanked by the eastern light layer defined by the yellow sculpted wall, which moves into internal space from the outside and shifts plane in order to differentiate spaces (within the anonymous linear unit-space) by light. Movement into the dwelling has been taken transversely through the eastern light court fragment so that one experiences the fragment before the whole.
- Layering, which clocks the movement of the sun and the colours of the spaces, which are white, seeks to express the character of the gentle-harsh light of the place.