Excerpt: The Pavilion House, designed by Flyingseeds design studio is a contemporary Indian house nestled within nature intended for leisure activities. The brief was to design a new contemporary house next to the existing one with an open garden all around it. A free-flowing, open layout was conceived, with blurred boundaries between the interconnected spaces, which eventually could act as one big public space when needed.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] In the contemporary world, the definition of home has evolved substantially. The expectations and demands are changing from just the comfort, aesthetics, and safety of a shelter to lifestyle, luxury, a statement, and a work of art with personalities in their own right. It’s the architects’ responsibility to take up this challenge to not just meet these demands but also bring in traditional and global concerns consciously and innovatively. Conceding that each unique idea getting built as someone’s home will stay there for the sands of time and will influence society and the ecosystem on a micro and macro level Thus, the approach to the idea and how it is nurtured will define the course of the private residence design.
The site, around 25000 sq ft, was a flat, long rectangular profile orienting north-south, with an existing house of the owner on the extreme south-west segment of the plot and a vast garden towards the north.
The brief was to design a new contemporary house next to the existing one, with an open garden all around it. This new house belongs primarily to the new generation, two young boys who are about to start their own families soon.
The family, being affable and social, always believed in meeting and hosting community gatherings, often on their own premises; hence, the designers aspired to ideate a zestful, young contemporary Indian house nestled within nature, dedicated to recreational pursuit. To start with, the ground floor level was conceived as a free-flowing open layout with blurred boundaries between the interconnected spaces, which eventually could act as one big public space when needed.
The new house shares the entrance porch and reception with the existing house. Both the house units have been intentionally connected with an axial wall, which originates from the existing house, travels through the fascia of the existing temple, and divides the entire building footprint in 1:2, which is further divided into three equal rectangular zones: living, common area, and private zones stretching from north to south.
The Fragmental Wall, as the designers call it, is the transition element, made out of indigenous limestone and articulated with strategic openings, between the Living, Drawing, and Common lobby. Once in the entrance lounge, this free-standing wall is the main guiding axis travelling throughout the length along the common lobby and drawing room till the edge of the pool.
On the south end of the pool sits the secluded entity, ‘The Pavilion, overlooking the pool. The glass pavilion, which has been envisaged as the tranquil recreation hub of the house, floating above the pool, is the final destination of all the movement routes at ground floor level. It is connected to the semi-covered bar extending out of the drawing room on one side and to the living room deck through glass steps over the pool on the other side. The drawing room, too, participates with the pool on the east with large full-height windows. The flexible nature of the living areas moulds itself by spilling over and merging together as per the size of the gathering.
A prominent existing Plumeria tree in the centre of the rear garden in the north induces the built mass and carves a part of the garden deep into the core of the building, thereby bringing nature indoors to bloom right in the centre of the living pace and be in constant transmission with it. The green court is secured by double-height glazing and an inclined north skylight on the top, making it a large green terrarium, amplifying the openness and bringing in the abundance of north light throughout the day for the living and common areas. The living spaces are oriented towards the vast garden and feature full-height glass windows to invigorate transparency and undeterred views.
The south façade of the house comprises a thick double cavity wall with small apertures integrated with specifically designed solar shading louvres to achieve efficient passive thermal insulation and block the harsh sun of the long summers of central India.
All the master bedrooms sit on the first and second floors and align with the south edge of the house. The new house connects the existing one on the first floor through a wide green bridge, right above the entrance portico. The connecting bridge and the terraces flaring out in the north and south have been encapsulated with the spunky, light MS canopies with soft tensile fabric coverings that not only protect from the sun and heavy monsoons but also distinctively complement the heavy, solidly built mass.
The clients, being art aficionados, had huge collections of the legendary paintings and sculptures; the fragmental wall and others became the display background for the selected paintings, and the souvenirs added another layer of harmony and charm to the stimulating inside-out environment of the ‘Pavilion House’.
The house made beneficently comprises of a large recreation area, a swimming pool, a home theatre, a fully fledged gym, a spa, and a huge open green lawn that was meant to host community gatherings. However, it got finished just before the world came to a halt in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and the new house motive got reformatted and instantly suited to the present need of families to lock themselves in and relish the sublime living all by themselves.