Client: JIJO JOSE & FAMILY
Plot area: 16 cents
Built Up Area: 3000 sq.ft.
Architects: City Futures Design Collaborative,
Structural Consultants: Triangle Studio
Photography: Iksha Studio
The ‘LEVEL ONE’ house is a four bedroom residential home located in Kollam, Kerala. The plot is just 500m away from the coast along the busy Priyadarshini Road with a strong monsoon influenced climate. The home is designed for a business couple and their three teenage daughters. Embracing the monsoon rain was a primary concern of the client. The couple also wanted the main living spaces spread across in one single level yet without losing connection between the rooms.
Our main concern when we started off the design process was the strong angular alignment of the plot and the presence of a large electric transformer in the front of the plot. We decided to make use of the angles and create angular decks at the peripheries of bedrooms. This resulted in giving us rooms with straight lines, yet the angular decks added a character to the space. The car garage, verandah and the formal living room stands as a separate piece placed along the alignment of the angle connected to the core spaces through the staircase unit. This resulted in an angular wall for the living room making it stand out. This wall further accommodates the prayer unit.
The angular decks act as multifunctional units. It screens off the busy road from the private bedrooms, shuts off the strong south west tropical glare and additionally it buffers the angles of the building. Being spread in a single storey we had to anchor the multiple rooms through a common space. A central courtyard was added for this purpose. The courtyard connects the dining space to the living corridors around the bedrooms and thus becomes the common ground for all activities inside the house. The courtyard has been opened out with full height sliding doors which blurs the boundaries between inside and outside. The private spaces are consciously grouped around the courtyard thus making it the heart of the design.
A partial upper level added above consists of a large study space, a library, a reading room and utility rooms. The staircase well has been made double height thus connecting the study space with the foyer below. This ensured a flow of wind and light between the vertical spaces.
The angle of the upper floor was not buffered. This was done to give a seemingly dynamic facade. Further earthly tones of terracotta, shades of cement finish and teak wood embraces the tropical aura in its entirety. A tropical sloping roof in steel truss and terracotta roofing tiles crowns the volume. The roof has been raised above the stairwell to capture light indoors and acts as a visual marker.
The level one house has strong connections to its context and accentuates the greenery around. Its carefully created spaces accords well with the activities of its inhabitants and is a living testimony to creating a built form in a tropical milieu.
