Location: Bangalore

Built-up Area: 141000 sq.ft

A home is often illustrated using pitched roofs covered with vines, and a garden with many trees. This impression of a dwelling is far from reality with the ever-increasing density of today’s cities. Under the influence of market forces, we witness the blind stacking of floors in housing projects and the unempathetic cramming of people into the tightest of spaces. This is usually followed by landscaping strategies that ironically start with the ‘clearing away of trees and vegetation’ of the site before construction. We wished to overcome the oft-seen failure of housing projects to exhibit the importance of generating a dialogue with their immediate environments.

The clients (a city-based developer) presented us with a brief that included housing units and typical amenities along with communal spaces. In spite of the speculative nature of the project, they also requested for the preservation of trees on the given site, presenting us with an opportunity to explore a new paradigm within the housing scenario. Sited amongst dense greenery within a residential precinct in Bangalore, the ‘Homes around Trees’ project is an apartment building development for thirty-eight units. The building places itself in a formidable thicket on a 1.1 acre piece of land. Hence, the conservation of not only the trees, but the experience of the site itself turned into the main objective that kick-started the design process. 

A rectangular footprint is generated in conjunction with the existing trees on site as loci. A sculpted mass is generated, with the tree-volumes imprinted onto the 10-storey building as a set of concave incursions. The close relationship fostered with the trees not only provides a unique identity to the homes but also instills a sense of belonging and rootedness within the community. These tree-scoops are activated by programmes that ensure that people are drawn to the outer edges, naturally. Communal spaces like reading rooms, lobbies and indoor sports areas occupy the double height volumes of the ground floor, bound by the vast volumes of the ‘tree-scoops’. A diagonal incision between the two largest scoops that embrace and protect a Banyan and a Raintree respectively, forms a street-like activator. Another set of programmes that include a swimming pool and amphitheatre is placed on the terrace of the building, which offer views of the city skyline across the tree canopies. 

Sandwiched between these two layers of communal spaces are the dwelling units; all of which open onto the two long sides of the building. A floor plan with two cores was adopted, each catering to two units each. The units open up to abundant natural light and cross-ventilation. The spaces inside the dwelling unit; the living room, dining room and the bedrooms, benefit from the close proximity of trees and thereby become part of the thriving ecosystem that each of them host.

On the elevation, the scoops read as large concave incursions that define the four facades of the building; embracing and framing the trees they protect. With a skin of louvers, these scoops form cyclorama-like backdrops for these trees – an architecture that neither overpowers nor underwhelms the landscape. ‘Homes around Trees’ is a housing project that does justice not only to its users, but also to the habitat it is situated within. Respecting the symbiotic relationship a building ought to have with its surroundings, the structure compels viewers to comprehend the sense of urgency needed to preserve our environment.