Residence With Balcony As An Alternative To Traditional Courtyard | Rooted Kites Studio

The client had a special requirement of designing some kind of open space on the 1st-floor level to enable social interaction with neighboring relatives without compromising the adequate use of space on the ground floor level.  The plot size was 526 Sq. M., having 6M wide road on its east and south side. The given plot was very narrow in its east-west orientation with one elongated corner on the south-west corner. The primary requirement was to provide an office, warehouse space and servant’s quarter on the ground floor and a 3-BHK unit on the first floor with a multi-utility room on the terrace.

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The design was initiated with an approach to provide some sort of open space on the first floor adjacent to the kitchen area from where the ladies can interact with the neighbors on the opposite side of the road as well as with the street vendors. Also, this space can be used as an alternative to a traditional courtyard in typical Indian families and activities like drying of papads, preparation of masalas, washing and drying clothes can take place.

The ground floor was planned with the office space, garage and the warehouse on the southern half and the servant’s room on the northern half proving the main entrance to the first floor from the center. T the south-west part of the plot, there was an unutilized corner in a very odd shape, which was marked for the parking of another vehicle. On the first floor, 3 bedrooms along with drawing and dining space, kitchen, Pooja and a big balcony on the southern side were designed.  As the plot was oriented on North-South direction, we availed a longer frontage on the eastern side to use the morning sun inside the drawing-room, dining and kitchen area.

The staircase tower and the toilets were provided on the western part of the block. Making a staircase as an identity of this house, the floating staircase has been provided with pinewood cladding to give a different user experience in today’s concrete jungles.

Drawing room, dining area, and the kitchen have been designed with white and grey colors only to give a soothing effect as it is the most usable space throughout the day time. The blue color is considered as the most relaxing color and was used for sofa cover, as well as on the carpet in the drawing-room. Always it is believed that colors drag the attention as well as projects interesting environments and what can be the best way to design some colorful environment rather than hanging some paintings. Modern paintings prepared by our in-house artists were painted according to the required color theme.

Instead of going with a flat ceiling at the left-hand side of the entrance, this folded plate ceiling was used and alternative folds were painted with bright mural patterns giving a traditional feel leading to the Pooja room. This pattern got inspired by the folded papers used by toddlers to craft origami objects.

While designing the parents room, the main challenge was to provide such a design which can bridge the past with the modernity. So we went through different design elements from the past 4-5 decades and found this cane weaving element suitable which was used on chairs and sofas during our grandparent’s days. So finally this space was created with wall panels and side tables. The shape and pattern were also imitated on the back side wall of bed as well on the cupboard door shutters & walls.

To bring the greenery inside of the living space, indoor plants were used. Special attention was given while choosing the plant to display different shapes of the plants with the shape of the foliage and height of the plant according to the requirement of the space.

In the process of designing elements, we leave too much carbon footprint by using lots of manufactured products and synthesized materials. While designing the staircase cladding with pine wood, lots of pinewood wastage strips were generated and were of no use. Finally, they were sliced into more thin strips and used on the bathroom walls to give them a different look and break the mindset of considering the bathroom as a space of least interest.

The exterior of the house is treated with wooden cladding to create an intriguing façade in an otherwise monotonous streetscape.  Textured paint is used in combination with the wood finish. This not only helps in reducing the heat-gain by the surface but also challenges the trend of texture-less facades in modern architecture.

The boundary wall has a feature gabion wall to create an interesting element in the wall. A gabion wall is a technique where a metal cage is filled with stones, aggregates, or any other material. It is being widely used by designers in various forms these days. Around 40% of the plot is unbuilt. The unbuilt surface is ensured to be green with local vegetation and ground cover. This has resulted in reduced hard paving.  The green cover not only ensures rainwater to percolate into the ground but also reduces the ambient temperature.

FACT FILE:

Design Firm: Rooted Kites Studio

Design Team: Premchand Rout, Saraswat Sekhar Sarangi & Vishal Nara

Name of the Client: Mrs. Sujata Nanda

Project’s Name: The Nanda’s Manor

Project Type: Residential

Project Location: Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha

Plot Area: 526 Sq. M.

Total Built-up Area: 443.5 Sq. M.

Year of Completion: December 2019

Interior Styling & Execution:  Prem’s Creative

Photo Credits: Ricken Desai

Email: rootedkitesstudio@gmail.com

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