Editor’s Note: There are times when you come across work that is unabashedly and unruly true to the core of a soulful practice. Craft Narrative has not only stated its purpose through a raw yet distinctive design, but they have also done it while being sympathetic and respecting the inhabitants. And oh, what a feeling it would be to lie under the mango trees in a blissful courtyard. ~ Nishal Sevak

“There is a tree. My relationship with it is that the same wave of breeze goes past the both of us” -Shanta Shelke.

Architecture is about inclusivity, just as much about the environment, design, and the inhabitant’s context. It is about making boundaries but also blurring them where need be. Located in the rural village of Yavat, Maharashtra is The House of Tranquil Rooms, designed for an agricultural family of two brothers. 

The Traditional Courtyard House Builds Upon the Beauty of Natural, Emotional, and Physical Boundaries | Craft Narrative

Visit: Craft Narrative

The traditional courtyard house builds upon the beauty of natural, emotional, and physical boundaries, but its essence is borrowed from the courtyard and its tree. The whitewashed exteriors reflect the simplicity of the client’s needs—he clearly wants a house that happily accommodates the family members, and the mango tree, while taking care of the utility as well as functionality. Here, it is hard to define the precedence, who comes foremost—the families, the tree, or the house; everyone is a crucial part of each other’s existence.

The house overlooks the old mango tree, and as one goes around it, the house spatially defines and blurs lines between people and nature. Walk in the courtyard corridor paved with natural stone, and a sparrow of two might fly over your head-the inclusion and respect for nature can be felt evidently.

Although the family stays together under the same roof, spaces are designed with sensible appropriations to facilitate just the right quota of familial activities.

Everyone has a place of their own—there are spaces carved out near the windows for reading, practising yoga, or overlooking the farms. The kids, however, have the entire house to themselves; from the entrance to the big gachchi the house is blessed with.

Undoubtedly and at all times during the day, everyone’s favourite spot in the house is always near the old mango tree, after all, it binds them to the roots while giving them shade, a sense of identity, and a whole basket of kairis.

Be it the unfolding of the morning newspaper in the courtyard corridor or bringing the calves in for a tour, the tree, and the holy tulsi vrindavan shower their blessing. After all, they rustle with and breathe on the same breeze that gives respite to the family members.

Very much like human tendencies the house sequentially unfolds itself, from single-height spaces for each family’s use to double-height spaces for accommodating the two families together as they have their meals in the dining room or discuss their day in the living room.

The verandah welcomes fellow villagers and calves with the same warmth. The east-facing windows double up as rooms to provide refuge to anyone and everyone in the house and the intimate scale of it personally connects with the inhabitants.

Since the family follows the tradition of storing grains and spare utensils, a store room is provided, alongside the utility area. The colour palette matches the site’s context—whites for advocating the colour men traditionally wear and every other colour in the house to celebrate the sarees of the household women.

The memories of the children, the rituals of the men, and the giggles of the women make up the decor of the house, paired only with a hand painted bullock cart wheel or two.

With abundant and resplendent views of lush green farms from whichever aperture you peep from, it vividly makes you feel the tranquility and rootedness of living in a village, where people are humble, nature is benevolent, and lives are uncomplicated. Such is this house—built to protect, nourish, and pay homage to the village’s traditional ways of living, enhanced with small yet significant architectural interventions.

Fact File

Designed by: Craft Narrative

Project Type: Residential Architecture design

Project Name: House of Tranquil Rooms

Location: Yavat, Maharashtra, India

Year Built: 2022

Project Size: 4500 Sq.ft

Principal Architect: Ar. Yatindra Patil & Ar. Vijay Kharade

Team Design Credits: Bharat Yadav, Shubham Kapre & Ajay Harsure

Photograph Courtesy: Studio Recall & Sohaib Ilyas

Firm’s Instagram Link: Craft Narrative

For Similar Project >> A Striking Brick House with Hints of Traditional Design and Essence of Reformed Living