Blurring the Boundaries:
Weekend Home at Maale
Plot Area: 4266 Sq. m.
Built-Up Area: 400 Sq. m.
Year of completion: 2022
Architect: STUDIO roots
Photography: Atul Kanetkar
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Yugen
a Japanese concept about a deep awareness of the universe triggered by the profound emotional response to the spatial environment.
Set amidst the Sahayadris, the Weekend home at Maale sought to explore architecture in a hilly terrain for a limitless open space. The context presented an enchanting site with 100 acres of farmland. For the best viewpoint, a spot of an acre was chosen carefully – with Mulshi Dam backwaters at the front and a hill at the rear.
Inserting Green In Builtscape:
Spaces like courtyard houses are an effective intervention for bringing nature within the enclosure. In this case, the open space inside serves as a connection between zones of the enclosure, while being a separate entity from the landscape outside.
Conventional Built & Open Relationship:
Spaces are defined by their boundaries. One gets a definite sense of ‘entering’ by crossing into the enclosure. Thus, becoming a spectator to the ‘outside.’
Inserting Green In Builtscape:
Spaces like courtyard houses are an effective intervention for bringing nature within the enclosure. In this case, the open space inside serves as a connection between zones of the enclosure, while being a separate entity from the landscape outside.
Built Interspersed In Open:
The contours of Maale were a blank canvas for us to paint our idea into: A design that does not abide by the concept of boundaries. (ENCLOSURES WITHIN NATURE.)
Establishing Relationship Within The Environs:
The Site Engages a Pavilion, the main celebration Area along with an Elevated Bedroom and Library unit. To Step into this weekend home is to STEP OUTSIDE of our conventional idea of a house. A space UNBOUND that allows one to navigate within open spaces.
A continuous Exposed Brick Wall leads one right through the Entrance like a thread that weaves the independent built forms, while revealing glimpses of limitless open space.
THE COURTYARD THAT BINDS:
As one explores the indoors, Each Unit separately opens up the vista in a most dramatic manner while simultaneously the flanked sides engages one into THE COURTYARD THAT BINDS together all these masses
PURITY IN MATERIAL EXPRESSION:
Staying true to nature became the key determinant in pursuing a purist approach through MATERIAL EXPRESSION.
Composite structures (Exposed R.C.C., Steel and Glass, basalt masonry, free-standing exposed brick walls) were devised to explore this idea further.
STRUCTURAL EXPLORATION:
The main entity of the slab is a BEAMLESS AND COLUMN-FREE SPACE of 135.28 sq. m. with an overhang of three meters on all sides giving a buoyant effect. The slab tapers upwards along the projection, dispensing a visual lightness to the structure.
A ‘chevron pattern’ was used as a binding element in key materials- be it concrete scaffolding, granite flooring, or teakwood furniture.
Thus, the concept of ‘DISJUNCT BUILT’ INTERSPERSED IN NATURE with a purist expression and simplicity blends into the quaint verdure of the Western Ghats.
DRAWINGS
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