The ‘Urban Envelope’ is the architect’s own residence in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. Previously living in a house with his architectural practice taking up the ground floor, the architect wished to build the new house away from the road front and integrated with nature to relax and enjoy with his family.
The ‘Urban Envelope’ is so named due to the univocal façade that seamlessly weaves itself into the tight residential fabric of the city and distinctly conceals itself from the dusty and noisy urban street life. With no street frontage, the 10 perch plot is flanked by unsightly rear spaces of adjoining properties and the white walls that form this envelope offers the perfect separation and seclusion to the self – nurtured tranquil oasis within.
Resulting from this ‘inward’ concept, the main garden of the house is in fact the back yard. The house being confined to less than two thirds of the whole plot, this garden is relatively extensive.
A house is not only a dwelling, but a home that is a person’s sanctuary. It transcends a mere structure with complex socio – cultural demands. A house can be an expression of status, wealth and personal taste. It must support the pattern of life of its users and express their identity through its form and spaces. As an expression of personal taste, designing one’s own house is a particular challenge to any architect and in this case, the architect wished to twist the challenge by using it to experiment on a single material, the rubble stone.
With deep roots in traditional Sri Lankan architecture, rubble was favored for ancient dwellings. This design explores the aesthetics of rubble intermixed with more contemporary materials such as concrete. Experimenting with different forms and textures, the design brings out inherent qualities of each material to achieve a new language for Sri Lankan residential architecture.
The program and brief were quite straightforward. The house was to consist of 5 bedrooms with attached bathrooms preferred where possible. A living and dining room, a family room to watch television and a roof terrace defined the spaces for gathering and recreation. Kitchen with living facilities for domestic help, dual parking and storage spaces were required for utilitarian needs.
The impermeable ‘Envelope’ is only softened by the lush foliage of a ‘Dan’ tree (purple berry), its canopy of slender leaves heralding visitors inside through a concealed rustic timber door. At the point of entry, the entrance is still not revealed. Instead, greenery along the forecourt walls guides the eye to the main entrance in a quite journey of discovery. A rustic steel swing peeking through the rubble ramparts finally reveals the entrance, a well-defined void in between the solids. After all the enclosed walls, it’s a welcome surprise to see the cheerful entry that opens the house to the outside.
The living and dining room is opened to the main garden, and in the dense concrete jungle of its surrounding context, this large open space is a much needed distraction that the residence opens out to. A feeling of fulfillment is dawned upon the dweller through the contemplative relaxation offered from this play of contrasting volumes in the outside inside connection. The progression of spaces flows from one to the other, celebrating the day to day activities and giving new meaning to simple tasks. The home is slow paced and affords the residents the perfect setting to relax and unwind from the stresses of life outside the white walls of the envelope.
The architectural language of the house is rustic, using both rough and smooth textures of solid rubble walls, even white walls, and neat cement float finished floors. The rubble walls run parallel in structural definition, and the spaces are wedged in between the walls and crossed and segregated with simple white walls. The elemental rubble walls provide the architectural form definition for the dwelling. The use of materials in pure forms and less decorations achieves a ‘minimalistic’ aesthetic. The concept of subtraction is used to arrive only at the absolute necessities in structure, space and decoration.
Material Used :
- A rustic disposition is achieved through material usage, and in all instances, the true quality of materials have been explored and brought out.
- Fair face rubble is the defining element while smooth white walls and neat cement float finished floors contrasts with its rough texture to give it further prominence.
- Openings have been made as permeable as possible using timber louvered windows, glass louvers (with aluminium frames) or steel grills.
- Exterior windows are of unrefined hardwood timber while interior doors use plywood. Natural shades of materials have been used without introducing artificial colours.
- A rustic steel bridge connects the master bedroom to the daughter’s room, the floor of which is finished with checker plates.
- An aluminium roller door is used for the living and dining room opening in order to avoid any divisions.
- In the master bedroom there is window sill seat, custom made of checker plates.
