THE EARTH HOME

Designed for a joint family comprising of more than six close-knit family units, this development is a cluster of six bungalows. Sandwiched between a village and an estate, the planning was conceived as one for self sustenance, with its major core acting as a central congregational space while the side setbacks being used for buffer activities like informal parties or games, screened with walls which also serve as design elements and creating a secluded singular environment. The planning has been done in such a way that each bungalow has its own private space yet forms part of a collective whole. The whole design works around the idea of three axes, visual and physical, which form the main entry drive-ways to the villas. There are no boundary walls around any of the houses, architecturally interpreting the relationship of a joint family while keeping each nuclear family separate in a different house. There is an unquestionable resonance between the built and its landscape, such that one flows through the other. Each facade of each house has been meticulously designed in accordance with the sun path. Large and thin crowning cantilevers shade the western and southern zones of the house leaving the interior space cool even in summers. In the heart of each villa is a living room, which has an external rear access for the other joint family members to directly enter while the formal entry is through a luxurious double height space into the drawing room. The drawing room flows out into the landscape and may be used as an extended open deck for parties. This ensures that each villa has its own private space for a party as well as a common central open space for family get-togethers.