Orange House – A Very Minimalistic Design Approach | Studio Habitect

The house is located in Kharbi, a developing locality in the orange city of Nagpur, Maharashtra. The clients had a very basic brief of two-bedroom hall kitchen for a family of four. The house is built across a plot of 1650 sqft. having a dimension of 30‘ x 55‘ and in a total budget of Rs 25 lakhs.

Visit: Studio Habitect

With this design, we wanted to demonstrate that houses can be built across a small plot and at a low budget without having to compromise on design, aesthetics, and comfort of built spaces.

The plot is located in a very dry locality with rather scarce vegetation, so we felt a need for creating green spaces within the house to connect the users to the surrounding. This was achieved by bringing the peripheral passages into the house and turning them into green spaces.

The massing of the house is fairly simple and is based on the basic design principle of addition and subtraction of volumes to create voids and rigid geometries. Two negative volumes created in front of the house functions as the entrance foyer and car park area, whereas the living area and staircase tower can be perceived as two cuboidal volumes added to the mass.Horizontal and vertical lines sinked in crisp solid volumes define the front elevation of the house.

Spatially the house has been divided into two types of spaces. One is the extroverted zone, comprising of the entrance foyer, living and dining area looking towards the street. The idea was to create a visual connectivity amongst the informal spaces to create a sense of bigger spatial volume. The other is the introverted zone comprising of the two bedrooms.

We felt a strong need to bring nature into the house by creating green pockets and emphasizing the natural light penetrating through the volume. We have incorporated a small court adjoining the living and dining area with an overhead skylight. The light entering through the skylight is ever-present throughout the day, with the puja area receiving the early morning sun. The wall underneath the skylight is cladded using yellow Shahabad stone which acts as a natural canvas for the light entering through the skylight and a perfect backdrop for the living area.

Post noon, Sunlight gushes into the house from the front facade creating beautiful patterns that highlight the volume and solid geometry of the house and during the evening you can see a beautiful sunset from the front foyer and living area.

The house is designed in a wood, white and grey theme with orange used to highlight the walls enveloping the front façade. The use of orange emphasizes the volume and dramatizes the entrance. The wood used in the front elevation to create vertical louvers, windows and fabricated staircase brings a touch of luxury to the house.

The kitchen is designed in a white and copper theme using PVC laminate sheets keeping the look clean and simple. The staircase has been designed to catch the viewer’s attention as one enters the house. It is designed with a very minimalistic approach to keep the cost low and to make it visually lighter, allowing more light to enter through the stairwell making it perceived as a larger volume.

FACT FILE:

Architecture Firm: Studio Habitect

Project Name: Orange House

Client: Mr. Suraj Randive

Completion Year – 2020

Plot Area – 1650 sq. ft.

Gross Built Area – 1500 sq. ft.

Total Cost – INR 25,00,000

Project location – Nagpur, India

Principal Architects: Ar. Aman Chand, Ar. Akshay Bhandarkar

Photo credits: Courtesy of Studio Habitect, Pratik Panzade

Website: https://www.studiohabitect.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiohabitect

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiohabitect/