The Arghya farmhouse is a quiet residence for a spiritual client; built on a Nashik farmland bunded towards a dam. Merely a quarter of the entire four acre plot is held by this house, which is laid out along a single horizontal plane to convenience the movement of the elderly client. Five principal lines define the formal and spatial composition of the house – those that also connect land and water, the sky and the earth, inside and outside, the built and the green, in effect, the private and the public. Sitting between the boulders and the stream, silence and sound of nature, the Arghya farm house offers multiple opportunities to its users to unify with nature, and take recluse in its own interior setting. The house and the site are seamlessly interwoven within each other in different ways, creating multiple contemplative corners between the mountain and the water.

Material of Construction and Details

In order to maintain a low-key tranquil environment, the project works with a minimal palette of basic construction materials of brick and concrete. It has been painted with water resistant lime based paint from inside, outside and even toilet walls. The flooring is leather finished Anita grey Indian stone, and even on decks the same marble is cut and used in small pieces including all wastage as well. All furniture, doors and windows in teak wood. All fabrication work and sculptures is in corton steel, which is kept raw.
The house is covered from the above by a terrace garden.

Special features

The house has been set within the site so as to not overpower its surroundings. The design has been made climate conducive by creatively altering the topography on the west side to allow natural air and light, creating a flow of cross ventilation. Special sculptures have been commissioned to be placed at strategic intersecting axes that marry art and architecture. The house frames uninterrupted views of the dam, while also creating private pockets and spaces for contemplative meditation.

Panel writeup

The House of Five Lines

Arghya Farmhouse, Nashik, by Space Studio Architects

Arghya farmhouse is a quiet residence for a spiritual client; built on a Nashik farmland bunded towards a dam. Five principal lines define the formal and spatial composition of the house – those that also connect land and water, the sky and the earth, inside and outside, the built and the green, in effect, the private and the public.

Cascading down through a series of pedestrian steps, the forecourt of the house gets defined by the first line – a wall with a long slit that frames the dam against the green. It directs us into the covered portico bending us into the direction of the entrance. As one enters, a big view of the pool opens up, bounded on the right by the second principal wall that playfully layers the house and connects to the water stream that runs beyond in the back.

The third principal wall-line acts as a retaining wall holding and allowing the earth for the home. This wall contains the kitchen within its U-fold, and has a U-cut within it to allow the stream-fountain inside. This central private sit-out in the house brings together the five elements of water, earth, sun (fire), wind and light (space). The fourth and fifth walls define the spaces for the private bedrooms and their public counterparts.

Sitting between the boulders and the stream, silence and sound of nature, the Arghya farm house offers multiple opportunities to its users to unify with nature, and take recluse in its own interior setting. A terrace garden on top of the house becomes not only an extended landscape of the house, but also integrates it with the topography of the original site. Moreover the house and the site are seamlessly interwoven within each other in different ways, creating multiple contemplative corners. Held between the mountain and the water, the house is a gesture in five lines folding life in an attempt to make architecture timeless.