Project Description
[Text as submitted by the Architect] The house sits on a hill slope overlooking the cityscape. Retaining the natural slope of the site and following the contours, the house is built in two parts. The ground floor serves as a private residence and the lower to be used as a guesthouse in the future. The private residence is accessed from the road on top of the hill while the guesthouse is accessed from the bottom road.
As soon as one enters the parking from the road above, a series of landscaped steps leads to the main door. The central courtyard segregates the plan to act as two volumes, one for the living spaces, bedrooms, toilets etc. and the other volume housing the service areas like the kitchen, dining and utility. The two volumes are bridged together by a third transparent volume; a courtyard, that acts to provide enclosure and also opens up the interior into the exterior. While looking outside from this space one can perceive the moving clouds as though it is moving through the house.
The top level of the residence has the living room, kitchen, dining, master bedroom and toilets. All of the spaces are oriented towards the valley while the other side of the building is visually blocked from the road side by boundary walls, the wall creates a vision barrier in a way that one overlooks the house. The main living room at the top level has an east oriented curved roof with a skylight that brings in the morning sunlight into the space while also enclosing the passage to the terrace above. The roof of the dining curves in opposite direction to the living area roof to depict the volumetric play that happens between two hills. It is evidently seen from the section of the building and from the terrace.
The bottom level has a family room, two bedrooms with toilets and a sit out space that opens to the garden outside. The difference in levels between the spaces can be sensed through the visual connection that is established through the cut-outs in the floor plates.
The central idea of framing the views of the landscape through architectural articulation is seen through all the spaces. The existing trees at the site are embedded into and are formed essential members of the design. The bottom floor is painted in grey on the exterior to give an effect of the top volume floating over the landscape.
The residence sits in harmony between the modern contrasts that it poses with the region while embracing the natural elements of the landscape.
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