Situated in a residential area in Pune, within a planned urban context of single-standing houses, the site and the prevailing byelaws pose a challenge to create the sense of the outdoor entering the indoors when the house is tightly fitted beside other residences in neighbouring plots. Typically, the local byelaws lead to developments where nomore than a 3-meter wide belt of unbuilt space is left around the houses.
The central idea is to work with levels creating series of steps in the interior spaces that continue on to the exterior landscape, to blend the edges between indoors and outdoors while creating a sense of expansion through the cascading steps, which can double up as seating areas for spontaneous occupation when visitors share these spaces. Through a central narrow water
body that seems to cross through the house, and an adjacent double height veranda space providing a range of volumes, porosity is achieved in the interiors with the illusion of a much larger presence of nature as the central experience,despite being an urban residence.
The large roof overhang, covering entire streetscape passages and verandas, acts like a large umbrella. Instead of covering each window, balcony and veranda with sun shading and water protective projections, one single roof stretches aesthetically and generously over the whole residence and protects from harsh sun and strong rains.
The various bedrooms are arranged to have cross-ventilation and autonomy from each other and yet are strongly connected through street like open spaces that expand into balconies and terraces with seating areas at different places for occupation according to changing light conditions during the day and seasons. Vistas of the outdoor are aligned to flow through and through key living and dining spaces, with windows allowing transparencies at either ends of the axes which constantly lead to the landscaped exteriors at either end. Verandas and terraces on various level sand long cascading steps along water bodies encourage the interior activities to spill over to transition spaces between inside and outside, the defining element of a home that is intimate within and without.
The structure is made of exposed brick masonry interspersed with plastered surfaces and reinforced concrete roof. Residence Kanade inconspicuously merges into its immediate surroundings and creates a sense of outdoor entering the indoors despite the compact urban context of the site.
Category:
Residences