Bridge House

The client is a large IT business company based in South India. They have a 150 acres organic farm a few km from Pondicherry. The farm produces over a dozen varieties of pulses and grains. They have been conducting high quality research in organic farming methods and wish to now disseminate their learning among other farmers in the community. 

CLIENT

Mr.Sriram

CATEGORY

Community Housing

SUB-CATEGORY

Group Residential

LOCATION 

Tamil Nadu

PROJECT AREA

5,000 sq.ft

LAND AREA

150 acres

Scope

Architectural Design, Sustainability Engineering – strategies for water, waste, energy

Design tIMELINE

Jan 2020 – Jan 2021

Construction

Upcoming

Project Brief

The project is intended as a Residential Guest House for people who would be coming to attend the workshops. It needs to give a sense of neighbourhood cluster. The client would like this house to draw its inspiration from the traditional Tamil House with pitched roofs.

Creating wind funnels through the building to facilitate natural ventilation
Bridges connecting the Living and Bedroom spaces with balconies shading the main walls
Challenge

In the first phase, four homes were planned with each home as a two bedded home with common living room, kitchen and ensuite washrooms. The residences had to be non air conditioned and hence needed to be thermally comfortable through natural means.

Solution

In order to achieve natural cooling, wind funnels were created within the functional spaces and were “bridged” with floating slabs. Hence the name. Repetition of the bridges forms a rhythmic pattern of solid and void. Balconies shade the main walls and protect them from thermal gain. Use of natural materials root the Bridge House in its context.