The Green Gable House / Atelier Architects
- Area:
700 m²
Year:
2022
Text description provided by the architects. The green gable is a 700-square-meter weekend home for a family on the outskirts of Indore. All spaces of the house are accommodated under a single-linear gable roof. The Terracotta block jail wall on the face of the building creates a sense of inquisitiveness. The solid terracotta blocks are arranged to control the visibility and sunlight in the Master bedroom placed behind it.
As one enters through the freestanding filler slab canopy, they are welcomed with the sound of flowing water and the smell of the beautiful Champa placed on the main door. On entering, one can truly experience the volumetric dominance of the roof accentuated by the green turquoise-coated metal structure and wooden ceiling.
The dining, kitchen, and living rooms are all paced in an open-plan format, one next to the other. There are ample spillover opportunities from this central spine of the house to the outdoor spaces, such as the pool, the upper deck, and the massive lawn. The Terracotta blocks for space have been sliced in half for cladding on walls to create intriguing patterns. The design of the Master bedroom on the ground floor also follows a minimal approach balanced by a conscious introduction of softened design elements: be it through color, texture, pattern, materiality, or light.
The great challenge was to counter the annual inundation as the site lies in the path of a larger water channel. To counter this with the least amount of footprint, soft techniques such as dykes and trenches were adapted to channel the water around the building. The strategic channelization of the water is used to recharge groundwater levels. This also opened up the possibility of keeping the cattle out around the farmland without constructing a compound wall.
As a conceptual obligation and for spatial coherence, the larger part of the martial palette remains constant throughout the project. A conscious effort has been made to present the same materials in alternative ways across spaces. The dense tropical plantation forms a buffer around the property and helps in controlling the microclimate of the house. As night sets, the glow of the lights on the gable roof makes it seem floating on the delicate structure.
