As a designer we were very excited as the site was beautiful unfolded on the banks of a small river Reva near Bharuch district in Gujarat, surrounded by farms on all sides, secluded from the city and chaos.
There were no contours to play with but we decided to create a few in the due course of planning the house that would overlook the cliff and have a generous view of the surroundings and the river at large.
The biggest challenge was to capture the optimum view that the site offered from either sides of the house and hence was the decision of having an east-west facing house, which was contrary to the design principles but twisted tactfully here.
The requirement was bifurcated in two parts, one that served a public and meeting space and the other as a private abode, each connected to one another without any having to compromise its privacy.
The layout was a simple linear block divided on three planes. The semi-basement housed the entertainment zone, the ground floor consisted of all services, bedrooms and needful amenities and the top floor had a master bedroom with a sprawling terrace garden.
The overall concept was to have fins that became a skin guarding the facade such that they form a verandah along the periphery. The fins were designed to guard the facade against heat without having to compromise on daylight at the same time maintaining necessary privacy without obstructing the view. The house was designed keeping in mind the passive cooling measures with terrace garden and fins being the key of concept. The front of the house is the highlight that overlooks the cliff accentuating the view.
