SAMUDRA
The house is located in Akkarai, a coastal suburb in Chennai along the East Coast Road. The atmosphere is quiet, open and green inviting people to live more outdoors. There was an old structure on site, which was demolished. We retained and reused some parts like the wooden ceiling and stone pavers. The new house sits in the middle of the plot of land, with a garden on both sides. We wanted to retain most of the existing trees towards the back and the front of the site.
The architecture of the home was formed by a close arrangement of rooms where one room leads to the next. The intention was to minimize the use of corridors, originally intended to sperate served and service spaces, in favour of a more informal & intimate environment. The edges are open and porous with large glass doors, creating a multiplicity of relationships between the house and the garden.
"In making for ourselves a place to live, we first spread a parasol to throw a shadow on the earth, and in the pale light of the shadow we put together a house."
PUBLICATION FEATURES
A part of the brief was to build a house with a sloped roof. The singular sloped roof and bricks draw on associations of a house from our memory. The roof extends over a verandah at the entrance where we placed a swing. Brick walls are combined with a framed structure to provide large openings in all the rooms.
We explored the material in different forms in the house. The staff block carries a load bearing brick wall, broken bricks were transformed to create a surkhi plaster that was used on some structures.
We introduced materials like corten steel for the gate and stone walls & floors to complement the character of the brick and concrete that gain beauty with age.
Location : Chennai
Typology : Residential
Year of completion : 2021
Status : Completed
Client : Private
Size : Undisclosed
Design Team : Solachi Ramanathan, Ajay Dev
Structural Consultant : Manjunath & Co
MEP Consultant : Arul Design
Landscaping Consultant : Ranjeet & Maria Jacob
Civil Contractor : R Venkatachalapathy
Landscaping Contractor : Eden Garden
Photography : Niveditaa Gupta
