Farm house for Neuman

FARM HOUSE for Neuman, Trichy

Jan 2015 -

C O N TENTS

INTRODUCTION

2

SITE

3

LEARNING FROM GEOFFREY BAWA

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SCHEME 1

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TO JUSTIFY THE SITE - SCHEME 2

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SEARCH FOR A MORE SIMPLE, PLASTIC AND VERSATILE SPATIAL EXPERIENCE

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REVISITING BAWA

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THE BEGINNINGS OF A SOLUTION

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SCHEME 3

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IT

started out as a project for a weekend house away from the busy city. I entertained the idea of not a house, rather a sheltered pavilion amidst a garden of large trees. The requirements were made simple - a bedroom, a living room and a dining with a kitchenette.

It also became the responsibilty of the project to address the client’s concern for security and commercial viability ( his idea was to rent the same for weekends!).

Memories of my visit to Geoffrey Bawa’s Heritage hotel in Madurai, and images of his works including the Ena d’Silva house and Lunaganga estate. What attracted me was its spatiality, a narration throug space packing many different worlds not for once deviating from a comfortable human scale.

But the spatial constraints of the site, the meagre requirements did not allow me to entertain any exploration in that direction.

The doors opened by Geoffrey Bawa’s spatiality await exploration in a more appropirate project.

2

SITE

3

Away from the buzz of the city, approximately about 12kM from the city near Mangandam, the site offers a perfect place to construct a sanctuary. A quiet refuge. Construct an altogether different world inside.

The difference between the actual road and the road in the survey drawing gifts us with a continuous buffer, 9ft wide which can be crowded with trees that’ll protect the inner sanctuary.

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L E A RNING FR O M G EO F F RE Y BA W A

Observe how floor interacts with ground, the texture of the floor, ground, wall and roof, the colour etc.

“

Create different worlds, the building becomes a window to these worlds.

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Central courtyard - the heart of the house, other spaces are in reference to this space.

This space must inhabit the spirit of sanctuary.

Only spaces of private functions are walled, common areas diffuse into this central space.

The beauty of architectural experience and narration is to create different worlds and the artful transistion through them. The building becomes the window to these worlds.

The courtyard marks a different world and the it is revealed in movement as surprise, stagnation, destination etc.

Introverted worlds, extroverted views etc.

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SC HEME 1

n

0 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

7

1

3

5m

F

Scheme 1 was to find the most minimum of built-area and a yet a feeling of being surrounded by a garden. It was only imaginative with respect to the sequence of entry and the sculptural staircase under the spread of a large tree. More of a room than a house really, it helped me understand the actual size of the site which was not big for all the fancy ideas that I had in my mind.

Scheme 1 was disturbing in its proportions, the physical form of the building and the ‘resultant’ spaces were too cramped for any enjoyment of the garden which was at its disposal.

Further, it fails to take advantage of the geometry of the site to create interesting and varied spaces and would not have entertained a multifunctional use.

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T O J UST IFY TH E S I TE - S CHE ME 2

The shape and the unique conditions of the site have not been justified. This ‘L’shaped site offers a variety of opportunities to create different worlds. But given the size of the program, these cannot be introverted worlds but worlds to which the building opens into.

How can the geometry of the site be used to its fullest?

What role will the building play? - Is it to be an object in site ? or Is it to be a facilitator / a sculptor of experiences?

“

The building must become a channel to ‘sculpt’ the site into experiences. It must guide not impose.

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Cozy rooms surrounded by gardens.

The interior spaces projecting into the garden like fingers, forming peninsulas of interior spaces.

The building separates site into different zones. The central circulation (corridor) connects all each room that is master to a particular zone (the rooms now become independent pavilions).

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3

DINING

10' x 10'

FISH POND

ENT

OAT

1

0

1

2.5

5m

GROUND Floor Plan

A more generous plan, splitting the site into 3 distinct regions, each region can be modelled for different experiences.

Diagonal linking of spaces.

The glass staircase underneath the canopy of a tree.

BED ROOM

10' x 12'

DRESSING

4' x 5'

F

KITCHEN

TOILET 4' x 8'

UTILITY

5' x 5'

7' x 6'

UP

LIVING

13' x 10'

TRY

2

residence for sri.neuman

at Tiruchirapalli

CONCEPTUAL

I 15 FEB 2015

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13

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SEA RCH F O R A M O R E S IMP L E , PL ASTIC A N D VER S AT I L E SPA TIAL E XPER I EN CE

The disappointment I had with the plan of Scheme 2 became fully relevant and established as I developed the model. The lack of clarity and freedom in the interior spaces, the lack of proportion of the form became apparent.

The scheme appeared forced and absolute. It was not plastic. There was no transistion or effects nor did it allow a versatility to the use of open spaces.

The open spaces will eventually become dead-ends with the construction of compound walls which will eventually happen.

Where is the narration? Where are the subtle variations in scale, light quality; a complexity within an overall simplicity?

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R E V ISIT IN G B AW A Centrifugal On a large site and small built area.

Common central space - becomes the heart of the building.

Individual spaces open to the exterior at different orientations.

Nucleus On constrained sites. Create courtyards that are ‘Worlds within worlds’.

Geoffrey Bawa: The Complete works Robson, David

All interior rooms open into thes nuclei in different ways and each circumstance presents the same ‘world’ differently.

These courtyards hold the building together.

Though these observations do not offer substantial help to the project at hand, they show, however the different ways to impart a sense of spatial adventure to a building. At the same time, they demonstrate different ways on how the outside and the inside could be integrated depending on the circumstances.

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T H E BE GIN N I N G S O F A S O L UT ION

The building or the environment as an whole must embody fine nusnces in the spatial experience - from the inside to the outside, hard and soft, large and small, dark and light etc.

I am always struck by those transistionary experiences that exist between two realities.

The buffer that is neither here nor there. I have experienced that while travelling in a train or a bus, while star gazing - those fleeting moments of surreal bliss free from prjudice, a third person view.

A building that does not offer such experiences, that does not stop in our way to make us enjoy that subtle variation in light or sound, that does not gift us with blissful surprise of an encounter long lost to memory is but a cold box - merely a container.

“

You employ stone, wood and concrete and with these materials build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say, “This is beautiful”. That is Architecture. Art enters in.

-Le Corbusier

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SC HEME 3

The program must become imaginative!

What uses can this entertain.

- a weekend house - a small party / get-together - an art exhibition - a small invited talk by some eminent person - a dance performance to invited guests (like in Doshi Sir’s house) Then the building is merely a back-drop for theses activities and its material purpose is to ‘sculpt’the exterior spaces !

Then I remembered the Kanoria centre for Arts building in Ahmedabad by Doshi sir. I rememberes the suggestive solid mass and the scooping out of in-between volumes that creates a delightful surprise.

What fascinated me were those spaces of buffer that frames the cosmos. The sky and the garden are now part of the building !

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Create limits and play within those limits.

These limits can be affected by materials, the site, the requirements etc. depending on the nature of the project. These limits unify the building as a whole.

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Good buildings can never be reproduced or

represented within a computer or elsewhere.

The virtual image could never, in spite of its complex capabilities, reproduce the natural light, the climate, the mood of the user so on and so forth.

I have never believed in making a building that inspires awe. Rather I’m amazed at a building which like the form of a boat stays true to the laws of Nature. Everyhing falling in place organically - function, materials, aesthetics - none unrelated to the other.

The fleeting image of such a building / environment haunts me.