Category: Group residential / Community Housing
Location: Tamil Nadu
Land Area: 150 acres
Project Area: 5000 sq.ft
Client Name: Mr. Sriram
Status: Upcoming
Scope:
Architectural Design
Sustainability Engineering -
Strategies for water, waste, Energy
CLIENT & SITE
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 learnings among other farmers in the community.
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
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.
Bridges connecting the Living and Bedroom spaces with balconies shading the main walls
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.
