Text Credit: Salience

The clients have two sons with their families who wished to have a house but at sometimes they also needed to have separate floors per family. Thus, we came up with various architectural design options for the ground plus two structures with a basement for parking and staff areas, keeping in mind that along with the form derivation, the functionality does not get lost.

Located in the city of Surat, the site is in the Althan area. It is completely a residential area on canal road. This 23,970 sqft plot was double the size for both the client as well as his brother which later got divided into two separate plots for each brother respectively.

The concept was derived when the clients were clear that they not only wanted to maintain their own privacy, but also spend quality time together as a family. So various options were created after which we came up with the fluid balconies that were extended or punctured to create a very unique envelope for the structure. The edges were kept rounded in order to give an impression of how perfectly the family members are blended together as one, with love and unity.

The elevation evolved subtly while also taking care of the functionality within the spaces during the process. As we were designing the architecture of the building, we strategically kept the services on the two edges in order to keep the interior spaces clutter-free. The two L-shaped concrete walls were designed for the same while also adding to the form derivation.

As the clients believed in Vastu Shastra, we mapped out the Best, Second Best and Acceptable Positions according to the Vastu Shastra principles for the entrance, puja room, dining area, master bedrooms, kitchen, as well as smaller elements like bed and W.C. Therefore, the spaces inside, were also taken care of with the utmost precision even when we were only designing the house architecturally.

The entrance to ‘Amansara’, was kept simple yet cozy with the greenery around as well as on the security cabin’s rooftop. The ramp takes a person to the basement parking that consists of a seven to eight car parking areas, servant quarters staff offices, and a meeting room. A pathway beside the ramp leads to the huge back garden, also beautifully designed by us.

Talking about the building envelope, the second floor acted as one of the main floors in our design process due to the open planning concept in its interiors, which eventually helped in the play of volumes of the entire built mass. At the entrance, a canopy is created specially for weather protection whereas, a separate entry is kept for the servants on the ground floor so that the rest of the spaces remain undisturbed.

The material palette consists majorly of four materials giving a very subtle look and feel to the house, overall. Only the two L-shaped walls covering the service ducts are made out of concrete, the rest of the walls are either covered with wall cladding tiles or textured paint.