With a stream running through the house, this retreat in Alibag delicately weaves into the landscape. It alternately opens up and closes itself to the different characteristics of the site. Though seasonal, the streambed allows for an interesting landscape feature throughout the year. A multitude of medicinal and fruit bearing trees provide for an intimate ambiance and comfortable microclimate. A short walk along the stream before entering the house domain builds up a sense of anticipation.
The house consists of two parts: the day areas of the house (such as the dining, kitchen, the living room and entrance verandah) are separated from the master bedroom by a bridge that spans across the stream. The house is like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings. With its several limbs, it reaches out into the landscape. Each “limb” makes full use of the views within the site and dramatizes special moments: a beautiful tree or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains.
The volumes of the house are positioned not unlike a Chillida sculpture, where “a large spatial field is formed in the centre around which the limbs move. The dialogue between the forms, are much more important than the forms themselves.”
Since the owners are enthusiastic cooks, the kitchen is made the heart of the house. Reminiscing of the kitchen chimneys at the Sintra Palacio Nacional, this space is a large, inviting volume tapering towards a skylight. Here natural light filters down and animates the space throughout the day.
Around this central kitchen, three ‘wings’ span across into the landscape and anchor the house into the location. For example, the living room ‘wing’ is lifted of the ground to have a panoramic view of the mountain range in the distance.
The guest room wing embraces an existing tree to create a courtyard. It just about peeks across the dining room to have a view over the length of the stream. The swimming pool is aligned along the stream. It acts as a substitute for it during the dry season, and as an extension of it during the monsoons.
Project Name
House on a Stream
Location
Alibaug, India
Year
2013
Type
Themes
Context, Concrete, Spatial Experience, Light
Design Team
Size
225 sq.m.
Program
Forest Retreat
Photographer
Publications
Elemental Living,- Phaidon Publishers
Concrete: Pure, Strong, Surprising – Braun
50 Amazing Homes in India – Skyboard
Mark Magazine 50 – Off Grid, On Water
Cement – Huis in Mumbai – Één met de Natuur
Domus Magazine – Artifice and Nature
Indian Architect & Builder – Subliminal Interactions of Space
Home Review – Child of the Forest
C3 354 – Territory, Beauty and Monument
Arredamento Mimarlik – Dere Üzerindeki Ev
Architectural Review 132 – Residential
Awards
The seasonal stream changes from a quiet cascading brook to an almost violent monsoon rush.
An arrival path aligns with the axis of the pergola. It embraces the pool while leading to the dining room on the left side.
The pool is aligned along the stream acting as a celebration of it during the monsoons, and a memory of it during the dry season.
The house is made to weave around the landscape. It makes full use of the views within the site and emphasizing particular instances; a beautiful tree or the cascading water of the monsoon rains.
Elegant timber screens soften the greyness of the concrete. They not only form a buffer between the interior space and the exteriors, but also create an intensive play of shadow and light on the floors and walls.
Concept Sketch of Architectural Routes and Shifting Axi
Exploded View – While the external structural concrete shell contracts and expands in plan in section it does so as well.
Ground Floor Plan
Roof Plan
Section-A
Section-B
Section-C
Sections
The Dining Room opens across from the Pool Verandah to the Courtyard
Internior spaces are defined with volumes created by the changing thickness of the internal ceiling.
the kitchen is the heart and center of the house, a large, inviting volume with a high ceiling and a skylight that floods the space with light.
The living room is lifted off the ground to have a framed view of the mountains and trees in the distance
Sectional construction details through dining room, kitchen and living room
The Guest Bedroom with exposed concrete interior surface
The Guest Bedroom peeks across the dining room to have a view over the length of the stream.
Exposed concrete walls at the Guest Bathroom are lit by an open to sky courtyard
Cantilevered ‘limbs’ of the living room and two bedrooms defy the heaviness of the concrete volumes.
the Walk in Wardrobe leads to the Master Bathroom
A skylight lights up the Master Bathroom and accommodates an outdoor shower
the sound of the babbling brook makes for a relaxing experience at the verandah of the Master Bedroom Pavilion
