The client had a 55 acre piece of land in Murbad, a small town in Thane district in the lap of the Sahyadri Hills around 3 hours away from Mumbai. He wanted a farmhouse which would overlook the hills so that he could enjoy a second home away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Designing a farmhouse as a second home for the client we were clear from the start that it had to be maintenance free structure as other than the care taker the home stays vacant for most part of the year. So the first part of the concept was to come up with a low maintenance self-sustaining structure which won’t be a headache for the client. To ensure this we decided to opt for a raw theme for the farmhouse using a RCC frame structure with local ‘Chira’ stone masonry. The stone is used in its natural form retaining the texture and the feel of it.

The unfinished nature of the stone and its red colour helps create that weekend home vibe across the building. This material along with the concrete is allowed to age in a natural way such that after some years when the landscape slowly starts to climb up the walls of the farmhouse, it becomes a part of the nature.

We also emphasized for a permeable spatial organization such that it doesn’t feel like an enclosed building. To induce serenity and natural cooling we planned for a central waterbody with black kadappah stone cladding and infinity edge along with a tree in the centre as the focus.

The corridor surrounding this waterbody acts as a means of leisure space for the family to sit and relax. The overall idea was to create this simple setting of few pavilions for habitation and at the same time provide unobstructed vistas across to the mountains.