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Architects: The Grid Architects
- Area: 9742 ft²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Vinay Panjwani
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Manufacturers: Artemis crete shop, Carpenters, DAaZ 幕友家具, Futura, Kotah Stone, Raiff, The Wood Element, Vedic Paint, Verantes Living
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Lead Architects: Snehal Suthar, Bhadri Suthar
Text description provided by the architects. INTENT: The idea is to create spaces that serve as a celebration of life within the home. Ethos and Design Concept - Architecture meets Zen in an Urban City. The Enso project, named after the Zen symbol for the circle, adopts a holistic architectural approach, integrating the building with nature's rhythms. It aims for a living space in sync with natural elements, focusing on light, shadow, and spatial flow. The villa is Designed based on plot size, sun trajectory, family needs, and climate; the architecture harmonizes plant life, water, sky, construction, and human interaction. The structure's sections are interlocked, optimizing space functionality for a cohesive entity. Biophilic urban living gives life back to the city. Green architectural and interior intervention re-establishing urban axis, enrich urban space quality.
Architectural Planning: The Form - The plan centers around an Enso Garden, sit-out, and rockfall, with living spaces woven around, ensuring the home integrates seamlessly with the garden. This core element significantly influences the Architectural layout. The Enso's form emphasizes linear dynamics and precise spatial organization, featuring open courtyards and water elements, promoting a fluid transition between interior and exterior environments and enriching the connection with nature. The layout, customized for the family's preferences, creates a comforting, hospitable home within a compact plot by prioritizing green spaces. Key areas—vestibule, living room, dining, and kitchen—follow a rhythmic layout based on circulation requirements. Positioned on a square, corner plot at a gated community's end, access is solely from the Northwest, setting the entrance there.
Following Vastu, the kitchen is placed Southeast, necessitating a thoughtful layout across opposite ends. The home's Northern front façade maximizes its location and orientation. Additionally, vertical transition spaces within the home, such as staircases and elevators, maintain a seamless connection to the environment throughout the villa. A skylight enhances the staircase area. The orchestration of large, glazed expanses, protected from the heat via the elevation boxes, instead of obtrusive walls is a conscious calibration to lend a sense of transparency, connectivity, and inclusion. This architectural design thoughtfully balances solids and voids through courtyards and balconies. The facade prioritizes natural light and ventilation with recessed windows and terraces, employing climate-responsive strategies to combat the area's intense heat.
Climate-Responsive Design - Enso thrives at the heart of a central garden and waterscape, pivotal to the home’s design. Carefully Selected plants and native species enhance biodiversity, creating a peaceful green retreat and strengthening the project's nature-centric ethos. Urban Biophilic design highlights the wellness benefits, including stress relief, enhanced tranquility, positive emotional reactions, better focus, perception, and memory rejuvenation. Research indicates that plant presence elevates mood and vitality. Enso’s climate-conscious architecture responds adeptly to the climate of Ahmedabad, a city situated in the hot and arid climate of western India. Utilizing natural materials and design strategies to soften the sun's impact while optimizing daylight and ventilation, promoting year-round comfort. Its design philosophy celebrates nature through landscaped areas and incorporating regional flora to support biodiversity and enhance resident health and happiness. Light as a Design Tool - The interplay of light and shadow is a critical element in Enso's design, with spaces crafted to capture the golden sunlight at different times of the day. This natural illumination enhances the architectural features and interior spaces, creating a dynamic and inviting atmosphere. The Interior Narrative - A quiet retreat amidst the bustle of the city.
Enso's interior exudes refined elegance with OAK wood, natural fabrics, curated artworks, and a spiritual prayer room for daily divinity, adhering to Vastu principles. The ground floor entrance leads to an informal living room, linked by a common passage, which includes a guest room, formal living, dining, and kitchen, all spaces overlooking the verdant garden, illustrating meticulous material choice, detail-oriented design, and landscape integration as development keystones. There is abundant gentle natural light, and it connects deeply with nature, presenting a serene urban retreat fostering community spirit. The entrance features a grand, simple solid wood door, leading to spaces adorned with conscientiously curated and selected artwork and sculptures. The North-facing, double-height formal living and dining rooms bathe in soft sunlight, enhancing the 'living in a garden' concept with expansive views through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Essentially, all the living spaces overlook the garden. The ethereal prayer room is between the kitchen and living area. The home's vertical connectors, like staircases and elevators, ensure continuous engagement with nature across levels. The elegantly designed first-floor passage links two master bedrooms, a guest room, and a study cum library, gazing upon the double-height formal living room and garden through clear glass, enhancing vertical flow. Catering to privacy, the spacious & intimate bedrooms feature artistic & styled decor. Balconies extend, offering shaded outside views, transforming this home into a unified design that upholds architectural integrity and connects with nature, promoting collective living.
The Materiality - Enso's material selection emphasizes minimalism, sustainability, and natural beauty, incorporating oak wood furniture, Kota stone flooring, and eco-friendly Vedic paints, aligning with the project's commitment to aesthetics and ecological values. Exteriors feature exposed RCC and white textured finishes, with aluminum louvers and mild steel structural elements accentuating the façade. Fluted GRC clads the compound wall. For soft furnishings, breathable jute and cotton linen fabrics are chosen for their eco-friendly attributes. The kitchen showcases a live-edge oak breakfast table, adding to the organic ambiance. Lighting choices include clear glass ceiling lamps in the dining room, paper lamps in the formal living room, wicker in the first master bedroom, and concrete lamps in the second, all enriching the unique interior mood. Artworks by local artists imbue the space with cultural identity and charm.
Enso represents a thoughtful exploration of architectural form, materiality, and the indelible connection between humans and nature. It presents a model for eco-conscious, community-focused living. The development also shares several amenities like a home theatre and a gym in the basement. A longing for quiet within the walls of Enso. Life moves in harmony with nature's rhythm. The home draws towards stillness to bring some SUKOON (it’s a Hindi word that translates to Quietude/ tranquility in English). It's an oasis where green architectural interventions breathe life back into the city, re-establishing an urban axis that enriches the space quality and home living. It’s where every corner tells a story of nature, a circle of togetherness, where every element converges to create not just a house but a home. Overall, Enso Villa epitomizes our design philosophy by establishing a connection to EARTH, SKY, Humans, and Water. We specialize in taking in sunlight into the homes as we believe “Sunlight is the best friend of the Architect”. The design prioritizing habitat, preservation, balance, and a deep connection with nature define the essence of an URBAN home.
