The proposed building was to provide living accommodation for a family of three, along with studio workspaces, on a typical urban plot measuring 60x40 feet.
Bangalore's situation in an equatorial location, at an altitude of 1000m, along with its gently undulating landscape dotted with small lakes, gives it a unique local climate; distinct from neighboring areas. While experience of separate seasons is relatively indistinct, short-term variations in weather are marked and dramatic. It is not uncommon to experience an oppressively hot morning followed by a cloudy overcast afternoon and evening showers after which a wintry night sets in. An attempt was made, in the design of the blocks', to create a sensitive device that would record the changing conditions of the natural environment.
Isometric projections, wireframe diagrammes showing geometrical construction lines and site surrounding (cloud) conditions...
Design Concept (and plan form):
- Building program is fragmented into two units or blocks arranged in an L configuration. Footprint of the L is pushed to the limits allowable by building regulations, allowing for creation of a generous enclosed back garden'. Living spaces are stacked at the upper levels while work studios occupy basement floors.
- A look at the roof plan clearly reveals a desire for a chunk of personal open space within the realm of the city. This attempts at circumventing the prevailing constraints of building bye-laws where open space tends to be a peripheral residue that is spread around the margins of built form.
- Plan form arising out of the above concern questions current notions of functionality while re-establishing links with traditional dwellings that comprise an anonymous array of rooms connected with each other. Concepts of one, two or three bedroom homes with attached toilets are questioned and consciously avoided. In contrast with everyday experience, bathrooms here are always transition spaces.
The idea was to take the skin/fenestration elements of a conventional urban dwelling and transform them into a new architectural arrangement. This captures and intensifies the experience of the unique changes in nature particular to the place while satisfying utilitarian needs. At night the building transforms into an enormous light box with an enigmatic presence on the street. In traditional houses of the south as also in colonial bungalows of Bangalore, the wooden trellis that enclosed verandah-like spaces served the purposes of security, light modulation and privacy. In this project the grill is an integral part of the multi skin layered street facade with climbing vines gradually adding another, growing', layer of enclosure.
Construction: Villages around the Bangalore region use a composite construction of local brick and stone. An interesting feature is the use of rough granite slabs called chapadis as spanning elements for roof structures of single storey dwellings. This system has been adapted, in this building, to a new context. By use of steel joists supporting the chapadis, larger clear spans and multi-storeyed construction was made possible.
- A key element in the project is the layered screen wall which, in fact contains all the elements of the conventional window including security grills, insect mesh screens, glass and curtains/ movable blinds. This is reformed using standard industrial steel glazing system fitted onto a series of load bearing I-sections with open able top hung windows and fixed panels with a variety of clear, translucent and opaque in fills. Sliding insect mesh screens in pad auk frames are moved up or down between I-sections as needed. The innermost layer comprises rolling chik-blinds that can be raised or lowered to suit light conditions or requirements of privacy. The steel grill is separated on the outside to create another skin, which is clad in places with translucent FRP sheeting.
- The blocks have two faces each in load bearing wire cut brickwork laid in Rat Trap bond with vertical voids containing service conduits. The other two faces are of lightweight steel frame screen walls with composite infill. Floor slabs are rough granite slabs hand split at site from stone blocks quarried locally. These span between fabricated steel joists which in turn are supported on the steel I-stanchions and the brick walls. The roof is double layered; with an inner skin of corrugated Aluminium cladding sandwiched between steel I-beams and padauk purlins. An outer synthetic black net stretched on steel angle runners protects against excessive solar radiation while muffling the sound of rain.
