Excerpt: Court Fort, designed by Compartment S4, is a home-like workspace for an urban farmer, intending to strike the dialogue between the built form and its farm-like surroundings. The courtyard forms a visual axis with the entrance in the north, dividing the main living-cum-working space into a formal workspace-cum-dining in the west, and a sitting/informal meeting space in the east. Court Fort is a project that exemplifies minimal and natural living and combines functionality and aesthetics with a simple, easy-to-maintain material palette to deliver a space that is flexible.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Court Fort is a home-like workspace for an urban farmer, continuing to strike the dialogue between the built form and its farm-like surroundings.
Located on the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, this space comprises four major zones. The first one, and the largest by size, is the farming space that occupies over sixty percent of the plot in the east. The second is a natural pond in the center, held together by wild greens, contrasted and complemented by the waterbody attached to the built-form in the east. The third is a dense forest plantation in the South-West. Together, these create an ecosystem with seasonal vegetation, dense trees, a natural water body, and varied species of animals and birds that visit regularly.
The fourth is the built form with its minimal footprint, designed to be non-invasive and to be one with its surroundings. It secretly reveals itself from within the verdure of greens, and yet captivates the onlooker with its simplicity. While weaving in the programmatic requirements of a home-like workspace, the built fabric consciously reduces footprint and uses orientation and axis to its climatic advantage.
This c-shaped introverted built mass secretly opens into a private courtyard in the south; hence the name – Court Fort. The courtyard forms a visual axis with the entrance in the north, dividing the main living-cum-working space into a formal workspace-cum-dining in the west and a sitting/informal meeting space in the east. These are supplemented by a small kitchenette, wash and a common toilet, accessible from the courtyard for ease of use by the family and visitors.
The home in this home-like workspace comes to life in the bedroom. As a relatively private space, it is accessed from the living space and the courtyard and primarily overlooks the Champa tree in the courtyard.
The loadbearing exposed brick walls create cosy internal workspaces while a reinforced cement concrete pitch roof shades and humbly sits on top. The indoor walls are finished with lime, keeping the structure and the infill distinctly different while highlighting the structural system of the space. The red bricks and grey recycled bricks grant the space its primary material character, completed by the wooden furniture and polished concrete flooring edged with black kadappa stone inlay.
Openings in the form of doors and windows flank each wall in the house to allow for verdant views of the forest, garden, and courtyard and a continuous dialogue between the inside and the outside. The ledge seating by the entrance and the bed are cast-in-situ and the rest of the furniture is designed to be flexible, movable, and allow for the adaptability of space as suitable. This allows the client to use the large space in a flexible way for workshops, film screenings, lectures, seminars, etc.
The northwest corner of the fort is carved in to create a mini-amphitheater-like space looking onto the farm, where people could gather during workshops and training sessions. It is an interactive social space that is more public, unlike the courtyard which is more inward-looking.
Court Fort is a project that exemplifies minimal and natural living and combines functionality and aesthetics with a simple, easy-to-maintain material palette to deliver a space that is flexible and adaptable to the needs of time and its occupants.
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