Houzz Tour: Ahmedabad Home Uses Nature to Temper a Harsh Climate
This family home in India is built around the trees on site to create a labyrinth of interconnected spaces
The goal for this family home in India was simple: to build a residence that preserved the 284 trees and extensive lawn that were already part of the site. Couple this with accommodating Ahmedabad’s torrid climate, and architects Sangeeta Merchant and Sanjeev Panjabi of SPASM Design Architects had their work cut out for them.
“The preexisting trees and lawn prompted the exact positioning of the built form,” Merchant says. The design also incorporates rammed-earth walls, courtyards (to preserve trees), vertical pivoting wooden louvers, top-hung windows with mesh inserts and a facade made from Cor-Ten steel to manage the harshness of the climate.
“The preexisting trees and lawn prompted the exact positioning of the built form,” Merchant says. The design also incorporates rammed-earth walls, courtyards (to preserve trees), vertical pivoting wooden louvers, top-hung windows with mesh inserts and a facade made from Cor-Ten steel to manage the harshness of the climate.
Ahmedabad remains predominantly dry throughout the year, and the summer months are quite brutal. The architects employed a variety of strategies to mitigate the intense heat. “Sunlight is a huge phenomenon here, and on this particular site we were very aware of the crispness and harshness of the light,” Merchant says. The courtyards allow hot air to rise and escape by convection and cooler air, conditioned by the lush vegetation, to flow into the rooms from the sides.
Sprinklers activated by timers humidify the courtyards, which are planted with ferns, Raphis palms and plants from the Monstera, Alocasia, Philodendron and Terminalia genera.
The entrance is a single 52-foot-long, almost 8-foot-high, column-free space. The sides are fenced with vertical pivoting wooden louvers that create a filter through which breezes from the main courtyard can flow freely while the sunlight is screened out.
The entrance is a single 52-foot-long, almost 8-foot-high, column-free space. The sides are fenced with vertical pivoting wooden louvers that create a filter through which breezes from the main courtyard can flow freely while the sunlight is screened out.
The entrance area frames an existing neem tree (Azadirachta indica), setting the tone for the rest of the house — the presence of nature is felt powerfully throughout the space. “The tree adds to the whole experience of the entrance,” Merchant says. “We created certain details which allowed the tree to move and grow. The air that comes through from the sides is controlled through vertical louvers in wood and by sliding panels.”
The entrance then transforms into a living area, encased within giant sliding glass walls. The transparent walls allow the living and dining rooms to connect seamlessly with the surrounding verdant environment. The shade provided by the cantilevered upper level keeps this area cool. The architects incorporated another feature to beat the tropical heat: a manually rammed earth wall made from thick earth and mixed with 8 percent cement. Earth walls have insulating properties. “During the day the outer surface of the wall absorbs the heat, and by the time it transmits it to the inside it is nighttime, so the temperatures remain pleasant throughout the day,” Merchant says.
The architects took an unusual approach with the main staircase leading to the upper level. Merchant says that they didn’t want to go for the cliched cantilevered staircase, so they conceived it as a stack of drying timber in a yard. The stair rail is crafted from rosewood, with the bent corners made from cast brass, creating a sense of luxe elegance.
There is a second living area on the upper level. All the furniture in the house was designed specifically for this home. “Mirrors, towel racks, bookshelves, vanities, television stands, occasional tables and nested trays … these were all designed as bespoke objects,” Merchant says.
The daughter’s room introduces a playful tone to the decor. Not playful in the sense of color, Merchant tells us, but in terms of its spatial arrangement. To achieve this, the bed, study and storage are designed to resemble stacked boxes.
“Throughout the project we have tried to incorporate the best level of craftsmanship,” Merchant says. The master bathroom has a spa-like feel to it with the two vanities constructed from a single block of Indian Banswara marble (white marble with black lines mined from the Banswara district in India), crafted by hand.
The design approach changes on the upper levels as the trees aren’t available for protection from the elements. The architects, therefore, constructed brickwork walls tailor-made to support an outer facade. Made from Cor-Ten steel, each 18-foot-high panel hangs off the internal structure, creating a ventilated facade to shield the house from the intense Ahmedabad heat. There are tiny perforations in this “skin” so that when a breeze passes through the small oculi, the air becomes cooler.
The perforated Cor-Ten screens form jaalis, or ornamental latticework screens, that take their cue from the architectural fabric of Ahmedabad — the Sarkhej ruins and the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque. “The corners of the volume are perforated in patterns of trees and branches, a bow to the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque jaali, an architectural wonder of Ahmedabad,” Merchant says. “During the day, these spaces become dappled in patterned light and shade.”
Glass sliding doors fully open the dining room out onto the pool space. “The idea here was that if you are going to entertain, do it with an understated elegance. Thus, we dressed the space with lofty shutters, a giant circular handcrafted dining table and a Lazy Susan with … brass knob[s],” the architect says.
The pool is designed to resemble a dark, organic body of water, which reflects the trees and surrounding greenery. “Over-deck foam insulation, coupled with reflective glazed tiles, sliding screens, giant balcony spaces and the ventilated Cor-Ten facade all work in unison to reduce heat gain,” Merchant says.
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Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple, their parents and daughter
Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, western India
Size: Five bedrooms
Architect in charge: Divyesh Kargathra
Architectural designers: Sangeeta Merchant, Divyesh Kargathra, Gauri Satam, Mansoor Ali Kudalkar and Sanjeev Panjabi of SPASM Design Architects
“We don’t see our houses as a collection of rooms,” Merchant says. “We see them as spatial experiences.” Since it was imperative to design and build the home around the trees, a few foundations were even hand dug and carefully positioned. Wherever there are trees the designers created courtyards of varying sizes, which in turn resulted in a free-form arrangement of interconnected spaces.