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The streets of Khar used to be lined with low rise homes set back from the street and hidden behind trees and shallow front gardens. Densification and the demand for floor space has transformed these neighbourhoods into rows of tall structures battling for light and air, eliminating any manner of dialogue with the street, owing to the concentration of “decorative” multi story parking structures at ground level. Major parameters for design were:
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By accommodating the parking within the basement, the street level, up to a height of 11m is devoid of residential spaces. Instead, structure and volume are set back from the street and organised within a garden shaded by cantilevered residential volumes above. The individual bungalows are planned around central north-facing courtyards with the public/private spaces located at the east and west zones to establish views into the funnels between the surrounding buildings. The deep shaded apertures to the North create an abstract pattern of openings. The eastern and western edges are thickened to accommodate shaded verandahs, protected with operable metal screens. As a result the building appears to be an outlier in the skyline,an organism to be observed carefully before it reveals its anatomy.
We have adopted, first and foremost, effective Passive Design strategies, based on the appropriation and adaptation of 3 indigenous devices.
The plan and section have evolved through iterations of these three devices. As a result the spaces can be naturally ventilated, they receive glare-free soft light, and most importantly are insulated and shaded for perennial use, irrespective of the weather. The false ceilings have been used sparingly in service areas. Locally available natural materials have been used for the external/ internal finishes (limestore, granite, wood) along with mild steel & aluminium (external screens). These strategies drastically reduce the energy consumption of mechanical systems.
The individual courtyards bind the internal spaces and allow for natural light and breezes to flow through the house, behaving, in the hot months, like a thermal stack. Internal shifts in space and structure make the courtyard extend into the private spaces creating a network of deep voids and punctuated skylights. The sensation of living under the sky permeates through the house. The western edge, with its views of the sea, and its propensity to be subjected to the maximum force of the elements is organised as a series of deep shaded verandahs with fixed and operable screens. The Verandah spaces shift profiles within this tall void, based on the relationship with the interior, and each bungalow develops its own proportion of verandahs’. The operable screens create privacy and shading making those spaces perennially habitable.
The client is a large multi-generational family. Their brief was restricted to - Spaces/ floors for different parts of the family. A generic ‘visual’ brief stemming from the look and feel of ‘Luxury’ (marble/ veneer etc.) The transformation in discourse has been a revelation. The family now speaks about the air, the cross-ventilation, the fact that they very rarely need to use the AC, the quality of natural light, the sense of home, the ability to use their verandahs overlooking the sea.
MALIK ARCHITECTURE is a 47-year-old design practice based in Mumbai. It is a firm of architects, interior designers and services consultants.
In the last four decades, the firm has designed a number of prestigious projects in India and overseas, several of which have been published and applauded on esteemed platforms. It has won numerous design competitions as well as National and International Awards.
The professional philosophy of providing a comprehensive design solution and harnessing new technologies have resulted in innovative and dynamic solutions by the firm.
The practice attempts to develop a relevant contemporary syntax of architecture for the Indian sub-continent articulated through architecture as a synthesis of ‘Ecology’ and ‘Spirit’.
Through an ‘ongoing process of ‘Manthan’ or churning, the practice has gleaned from a rich historic, cultural and philosophical past incorporating a process of continuous change and generating a contemporary design idiom.
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