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Architects: KUN Studio
- Area: 550 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Sanjay Borra
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Lead Architects: Arya Kaushik, Saagar Tulshan, Shreyansh Sett
Text description provided by the architects. The Cezara Holiday Home, a project by KUN Studio, stands as an architectural homage to climate responsiveness amidst the urban landscape of Hyderabad. Designed to harmonize with the surrounding trees and foliage, Cezara is a testament to green living, allowing nature to influence its form and layout. The house follows the natural order set by the neem and mango trees, integrating with them to create a seamless connection with the environment.
The residence is a maze of open spaces and courtyards, emphasizing a communal living concept. The design ethos aimed to achieve a construction that appears simple and primal, akin to placing a large block of scooped stone atop a stack of bricks. The walls serve as fragments of loosely defined rooms, supporting a large monolithic roof that adapts to various functions of the rooms below. Public areas, intended as hubs of collective living, feature larger volumes than private quarters.
The light grey roof acts as a backdrop for the tree canopies, highlighting their presence. The inverted beams and hidden columns inside hollow brick walls offer expansive views of the monolithic roof resting on large brick walls, creating different planes perpendicular to each other. The central swimming pool reflects the trees and captures the sunlight as it filters through the leaves.
At KUN Studio, our design philosophy is rooted in the pursuit of beauty and the acknowledgment of the symbiotic relationship between artificial and natural habitats. While a symbiotic relationship helps environments flourish, temporary dysbiosis is inevitable with any new intervention. Thus, a contextual understanding of the site becomes crucial, transcending physical and visual aspects to embrace the anecdotal and local, blurring the boundaries between the built and natural worlds.
The building's fabric is a blend of exposed brick and concrete, selected for their low environmental impact and natural insulating properties, enhancing the holiday home's climate responsiveness. Strategic openings and orientation allow Cezara to harness natural light and ventilation, reducing its dependence on artificial energy sources. Envisioned as a versatile event venue and film set, Cezara anticipates future needs, offering a space where ecological principles and creative pursuits converge. It stands as a testament to climate-conscious design, weaving built and unbuilt spaces into a home that embraces its verdant heritage and shapes a legacy of spatial design and environmental stewardship within its walls.
