Divyam Villa

The brief from the client was literally very brief. A small weekend house for his big family to relax and rejuvenate and that is it.
The site, a linear parcel of roughly half an acre sits at a measurable distance from the coastal edge of Arabian Sea near Surat, a popular spot for break away from the busy city life in a matter of few kilometres.
The site had old fruit trees and palms in the forecourt which deserved respect and hence the house was pushed deep on the edge paying heed to the existing landscape. The program was simple a lounge and kitchen dining to entertain friends along with personal gym and bedroom.
This relationship was twisted such that the public and private areas got planned as two objects enclosing the landscape and connected with the pool with a lounge deck. While the kitchen dining and gym found their location on the ground, the lounge and bed rooms got lifted on the upper level to allow an elevated conversation with the immediate landscape.
The pool area became bridge or rather an in-between realm between the public and private space.
The house hardly occupying a fraction of the site is approached through a series of crooked lines of walkway snaking through the forest of existing trees and palms and discreetly revealing the glimpse of the house at points as incidence and finally is terminated at the entrance expressed by a tall wooden door framed within by a concrete box crafted as a soft sponge bulging out of the surface.
The foyer then takes you to the dining space on the ground floor planned as a verandah along the landscape which seems cascading inwards and creates a dynamic relation. The three shafts which are skylights interpret the fire place which was an integral in the old British mansions.
The lounge on upper level is a simple glass pavilion with furniture planned to occupy less space and leave it more open for a versatile use for many occasion. A big party space for friends at one time, to a quite space to relax and contemplate.
The other wing with gym on lower level and bed rooms on upper is connected with a bridge through the pool and expresses them as a nest covered with the shingles of aluminium members from outside. The interiors in contrast are open and warm.
The pool deck is a quiet courtyard which acts as a pivot for the house.
The spaces are simple and often act as a medium to experience the landscape.
Furniture is carefully crafted to compliment the space and not occupy it.
The material of glass metal and concrete has been celebrated in their own way as a craft such that they are read in harmony.
Each of the space is complete in itself but converse with each other as a series of events that are tied by memory in the users mind.

The building is a composite structure of rcc and ms including innovative fabric concrete and aluminium nest kind ideas.