Screen House by The Grid Architects

The exposed concrete on the elevation is tautly balanced with the earthen colour and screens. A basic, close-to-nature basic palette was selected — stone, wood and concrete — which helped create a stable thermal mass. During the day, the house takes on a very “private” appearance. A veil of timber screens, horizontal and vertical, wraps around the houses, protecting the façade and the main living areas from the harsh sun and heat of the climate of Ahmedabad. But at night, with the rooms illuminated within, the effect akin to a magical lantern.

Everything was planned in rhythm: architecture, landscape and interiors. Each house has a waterbody at the entrance porch and a personal sit out in continuum. The intent was to keep the homes warm and welcoming, a house that always remains open. A living space that merges with the garden, so that it almost becomes a part of it. The constant presence of water in every house infuses serenity. The screens protect and form a transparent curtain to the garden maintaining visual connectivity between exterior and interior. A co-evolution which resulted in a coherent structure and style and expression maintaining architectural vocabulary.

The planning has been starkly defined in clear linear movements interspaced with the glimpses of the open courtyard — a peaceful, complete space with rippling waterbodies and carefully chosen mature trees. The principal living spaces — vestibule, living room, dining area and kitchen — are rhythmically oriented depending upon the circulation needs.

The interior is artistically composed and remarkably spacious. The orientation is to catch the breeze through balconies, verandas, and wide overhanging/cantilevered eaves that would also provide requisite shade.

The interior programme clearly demarcates and segregates semi-private and private areas. Even beyond the main entry, a vestibule caters to casual visitors. After this, the programme unfolds via a passage leading, on one side, to the prayer room, kitchen and dining and patio, and, on the other, the guest room, elevator and staircase. The staircases of each homes are defined differently each a sculptural element on its own. The prayer room is a place for spiritual repose highlighted by daylight that penetrates from a skylight above. The ethereal prayer room breaks the stereotype by placing the divine in the midst of lush vegetation, bathed by natural light that pours through the skylight by day and modern, jaali-effect lamps by evening. Vertical glazed louvers on the south wall promote ventilation and restrict sunlight, creating a dramatic interplay of shadow and light.

The double-height of the indoor living room in conjunction with the green vista that unfurls through floor-to-ceiling windows furthers the ‘living in a garden’ endeavour. The dining rooms are also extended to a timber patio with a lily pond brimming with koi fish. Essentially, the ground floor living areas are conceptualized as an open space overlooking the landscape filled with biodiversity and water. In contrast, the upper level is private and houses three bedrooms, each one overlooking the central landscape, and featuring a generous ensuite and dressing–closet.

The development also shares several facilities such as a well-equipped gym and jacuzzi in the basement of a separate structure, an outdoor barbeque facility attached to a covered, fully-glazed gazebo, and a fire pit to cater to extending to the garden and waterbodies.

The selection of materials, meticulous attention to detail, modulation and movement of space planning and inculcating landscaping as part of the whole, are the hallmarks of this development. There is abundance of natural light and nature. The Screen House is an urban residence that embraces the community living culture. A quite retreat amidst the bustle of the city.