The idyllic state of Goa where Zira is located, used to be a seasonal holiday destination. With its sunny beaches and verdant landscape it soon turned into a year round holiday spot for expats and Indians alike. Over the last few years and more so since the Covid pandemic struck, many young creative professionals moved to Goa to live and work from there. Many holiday homes that were developed eventually turned into first homes.

Living in Goa meant living in a bungalow or a detached house maybe with a garden. This type however also comes with a fairly restrictive price point. Zira compromises of 1, 2 and 3  bedroom units servicing the need for housing people who might not have that high a budget to buy a house.

Recognizing the need to access open spaces these apartments are organized around terrace courts, that stagger and cascade back from the street up the hillside location of our site. ‘C’ and ‘L’ type unit plans jigsaw into each other allowing each unit to have access to the courts, with living dining and bedroom programs sharing the terrace court.

The building is finished with a local laterite stone aggregate plaster and has a skylight arrival court . Through these planning mechanisms at the scale of the collective housing and of the unit we reference the central court of traditional house types; and with access to views , light, and ventilation through the landscaped terrace, to an aspirational lifestyle for the residents.

The work of the master architect Charles Correa, specifically his hotel Cida de Goa and the beautifully scaled villas at Verem (a couple of minutes from our site) were a huge inspiration in ways to articulate both mass and scale. The Zira project while a hybrid of both the bungalow and the apartment types attempts to learn from traditional and the interpretive work of tradition.

Team:
Architect: Sameep Padora & Associates (sP+a)
Other participants: Vami Koticha, Jemin Mehta, Sakshi Ghulati, Jaee Mokashi, Omkar Gajare