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Architects: Second Ground
- Area: 220 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Abinaya Varshni
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Manufacturers: Ira Furnitures
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Lead Architects: Srushti Shah, Tapan Trivedi
Text description provided by the architects. The site is situated in the heart of the agrarian basin of Tamilnadu, with an absolute minimum built fabric. A small house amidst the farm, with minimum tampering of the environment and the earth of the land as a building material was, therefore, an appropriate way forward. The attempt is to use minimum steel and cement and maximize the use of earth, in the walls and roofing material. The design, therefore, is a careful marriage of the disciplines of alternate, yet ancient roofing systems, load-bearing walls, and spatial elements of the past such as thinnai (in-built seats) and courtyards, while reflective of the architecture that we practice today.
The Makizham tree is the nucleus of the house which was planted before the design of the house began. Using this as the origin of the project, the plan was weaved around this tree, layering the spaces in the hierarchy of its maximum use to least used. Therefore the living, dining, and kitchen spaces, that form the first layer, are organized in an L shape around the courtyard with the dining acting as the fulcrum. The spatial planning was done keeping in mind the space, not necessarily a room, to allow for them to seamlessly flow from one part of the house to another, without any barriers/walls. The corridor space, the second layer, essentially acts as that conduit that allows for such a flow. The three bedrooms are tucked away on the western belt behind the corridor as the third layer.
The load-bearing walls made of Compressed mud blocks, carry the humble jack arch roofs that were precast (both beams and arches), had been getting parallelly ready on site, as the walls came up, and then got assembled in their positions to form the roof. This was the perfect amalgamation of the roofing system of the past, yet quick and easy to assemble (kit of parts approach) to keep the timelines and the speed of construction of the present. The dining space that acts as the fulcrum of the common spaces carries the mud brick dome above it. The low-height filler slab corridor is strategic to allow the jack arch to get lights into its spaces in the most enchanted manner – for a living space that is in the east, is lit in with the rays of the setting sun rays from the west through the arches.
The bedrooms situated in the west get the first sun rays of the dawn, in the same manner. This allows for the sunlight to penetrate into spaces in a controlled manner, yet indicative and thoughtful of the time of the day. The selective walls that receive the mud plaster are done so, to receive these rays of light from the arches, onto them, to further celebrate and enhance the rays from the jack arch, apart from its form that naturally allows a vent for the hot air above. The section that receives the arches is doubled up as a rainwater channel to collect and harvest the water from the terrace and bring them down in a visible manner, to celebrate the beauty of the rains in the courtyard.
