Name & Location: Out of the Box, Private Residence

Description of Project:

The 1200 sqft corner site presented us with the classic urban scenario.

The site was abutted by houses on two sides and flanked by low income housing on the other two sides. The question thus posed to us was, “What would be the relationship of the dwelling to the outside?”

The stand taken by us was to incorporate the ‘outside’ inside while the building shuns the surroundings. A classic diagram of this would be the traditional courtyard house. Taking this classic diagram we moved the court to the corner to create new spatial and formal effects. By moving the court to the fourth quadrant of this square we could magnify the boundaries of each program flanking the court i.e. the living room, the dining and the bedrooms would not only feel much bigger but also would have sectional relationship with the open to sky court.

The court is further articulated by placing a sculptural element that would serve as an informal dining area as well as a tub for housing a tree.

The jali wall cast in-situ completes the fourth corner to accentuate the experience of the court.

Materials of Construction Details:

The idea of the elevation was to have a customized jali wall with a pattern of openings which fade away to form the platonic cube. A fiber glass mould of size 600×600 was made to cast the concrete blocks; the thickness of this block was 100mm.

The mould had a set of 4 oval openings, these openings were then filled up according to the pattern, to achieve the desired variation.

The tiles were stacked up like a conventional brick wall to construct the wall. These tiles were reinforced with metal flats which run through and through to ensure stability.

Special Features:

Above mentioned elevation to address a tight urban site.

Corner open-to-sky court – Every programmatic space opens into this, this way every space seems bigger and better.

Garden sculpture – this was made in brick and cement. The sculpture houses a tree and extends to form a table for four.

Thus the building while negates the outside environment simultaneously houses the ‘outside’ inside.