Winding up a long day. Tucked into my favourite corner. The city has changed and so has my views. But my terrace has just turned dearer to all. A family terrace with a khwab, as they say it here in Bhopal, to house more functions, not. forgoing its original essence as a space for the family. That was what the project “Between the Sky and the Earth” was. The existing house, a double storeyed structure sat in Bhopal’s. tight urban fabric. The clients came to the architect with a wish to add additional functions. to this terrace they held very close to their heart without erasing their memories of the space.

Desert color communicates with us in this terrace settlement | Tracing Edges

The ground floor housed the private residence while the first floor is where the office of a family run business was situated. The ground floor, thus chaotic most often, was being used as a thoroughfare for the visitors to the office. It was this that led to the clients to wish the terrace became a point of relief for the family, a space to unwind after a long day. Thus was. born the idea to refurbish the terrace space to house a bedroom, a kitchenette and a small living area.

The section of the project also reveals how the existing slab of the servant quarters. provided a niche to tuck in the services, both the kitchenette and the toilet. What emerged out of this was the clerestory windows into the bedroom and the living areas.

Spatially the existing staircase divided the covered space into two, a private and a public zone. While the one edge of the staircase created a boundary with the bedroom, the private zone of the terrace, the other edge created the living and the kitchenette. The architect also celebrated this threshold device by the? ling layout, demarking the two zones, which acts. as a guiding element as, one moves through the design.

The site also sits on the threshold of a changing Bhopal. Situated right in the centre of the urban sprawl of the city, one cannot miss the views its offers to the users. The architect, realised the importance of these vistas and rightly enclosed one edge of the plot which shares boundaries with another plot and opened up the terrace to an unobstructed view of the city.

The interiors also curated by the architect, speaks the same intention of the architecture. To create a space to relax. The use of the warm hues calms the users creating a cozy. environment for the family.

The material palette of wood, steel members is soothing for the eye. The furniture is a perfect marriage of contemporary design with traditional motifs. The architect has been able to detach the space away from the ground, symbolically, creating a stronger relationship with the sky. One can never miss the sky throughout the design. It is as if, the sky is a silent spectator to the changes in the house. The play of light through the clerestory windows strengthen this.

Delving deeper into the present state of the house, the terrace housed the staircase, a small servant quarter and a parapet wall, marking the edge of the property. The servant quarter also brought to the project a slab which went forward to be kept as the only permanent. roofing structure for the project. The architect realized that a heavy slab over the entire roof might wash the memory of the terrace. Hence, the search for a lighter roofing material began. The truss roof was the product of this investigation. The roof is light, both symbolically and in terms of weight. It kept away the inhibition of a heavy material. It kept
the space unobstructed by both the light and the winds.

Within the constraints of the limited space, the architect began to weave together the functions required. In almost an act of careful curation, the terrace was decided to be divided into 2 major spaces. One covered, with a temporary truss roof, keeping the addition. light, on both the mind and the building. The rest of the space was to be revamped as an outdoor seating keeping alive the essence of the terrace.

Speaking to the clients, it became evident that they had a strong sense of memory. associated with this terrace which has been in use ever since the house was built in the 1980s. It was a space for the family to come together and enjoy over an evening chai. There was a clear longing to invoke this memory of the terrace.

This project manifests that design is more often responding to the language of the site. The site always has a wish, which it very strongly wishes to manifest. The architect is merely a mechanism to listen to this wish and translate it in the best possible way.

FACT FILE

Firm’s Name: Tracing Edges

Project Type: Residential Interior

Project Name: The Urban Adobe

Location: Bhopal [M.P]

Year Built: 2022

Duration of the project: 11Month

Project Size : 1200 sqft

Principal Designer(s): Ar. Manu Sharma

Photograph Courtesy: The Matter Studio By Rohit Mendiratta

Firm’s Instagram Link: Tracing Edges