Client: Kamal Malik
Location: Lonavala
Site Area: 5.2 Acres
Built-Up Area: 18,000 sq.ft. (1670 sqm)
Status: Completion 2017
Design Team: Kamal Malik, Arjun Malik, Ketan Chaudhary, Sundeep Sarangi, Suzzana Machado
Photography: Bharath Ramamrutham, Sergio Ghetti
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Consultants
Structure: CEN (Germany) / Strudcom / GES
Plumbing: Kodiyar / Shree Padmavati Engineering
Electrical: Vora Electricals pvt ltd
HVAC: Daikin-Cool air system
Landscape: Malik Architecture
Glazing: Epopsi Struma
Roofing: VM Zinc, Epopsi Strumat
Lighting: Light Alive, Hoefemeister/ Bega/Artlite/ Wibre
Contractors
Structure And Civil: Unique Concrete Technology (UCT)
Cladding: VM Zinc
HVAC: Daikin-Cool air system
Plumbing And Firefighting: Kodiyar / Shree Padmavati Engineering
Electrical: Vora Electricals pvt ltd
Pools / Water Bodies: Astral Pools
Interiors & Carpentry: Rajesh Parmar Siddhi Contracts
About Studio
Malik Architecture is an award-winning Mumbai-based multidisciplinary design practice with over 47 years of experience. Their practice has from its inception attempted to develop a contemporary design syntax for the Indian subcontinent, by approaching architecture as a synthesis of “ecology” and “spirit”.
Ecology implies a seamless, cohesive and holistic approach to design. This is achieved through the assembly of a group of highly motivated and evolved specialists in different disciplines.It is about creating lasting relationships that become so deeply intertwined, that the whole ceases to be a sum of its parts, and instead becomes a living, breathing organism in itself.
Luis Barragan said that “Architecture is the spatial execution of spiritual decisions.” For us, Spirit implies balance, understanding and tranquility.
Their work draws inspiration from nature, not through only its physical forms, but through its principles and processes. They have also tried to resurrect the Indian artisan, as well as cultivate the use of local materials as a corollary to encourage sustainability. This is exemplified by our works that incorporate load-bearing brick masonry, stone masonry, exposed concrete, and most recently, the innovative use of structural steel.
Their diverse, dynamic, and radical portfolio of works includes Residential, Commercial, R&D, Healthcare, Hospitality, Educational, Cultural, and Institutional as well as master planning projects.
The topography of the land, the material memory of the surrounding forts, the light of the forest, and the deep-water discharging ravines have created a dominant palimpsest of contextual parameters onto which the house has been woven.
As a home for 4 generations, it behaves like a condensed village, allowing for private and communal life. The flow of the large load-bearing wall that traces the ridge between two ravines anchors the proposal and establishes itself as a “found” element, resonating the contours and material of the walls of the Tungi and Lohgad forts to the east and north of the site. As the site flows to Pawna lake, so too does the house, picking clearings within the trees to capture the views of the lake.
Formal planning strategies are incapable of absorbing the radical flow of the land and water and everything from the spatial quality to the material language echoes the spirit of the site. The wall ruptures at points where the Verandah bridges over the ravine and continues on into the forest to the second ravine beyond the ridge. Sleeping spaces are embedded in the forest while public spaces assume the mannerism of suspended flight to the north and east.
The roof follows the topography of the perch points, tracing the path laid down by the hill; its language of fletched rafters and weathering zinc a natural foil to the robustness of the locally quarried basalt. Its contours reference the horizon and the hill. The deconstructed language of the tree-like structures that support the roof liberate the edges where shaded spaces and the forest merge.
Approach to Design – Dispersion/Float/Embed
Dispersion: The house occupies vacant spaces between areas of dense vegetation to prevent the cutting of existing trees. This allows the natural flow to thrive and enhances the experiential contact between built space and nature, improves the micro-climate and amplifies the cooling effect of the prevailing breezes, ensuring that the entire house is 100% naturally ventilated.
Float: Existing mountain streams have been mapped and preserved to retain the pattern of water discharge during the monsoon. Parts of the house are built on a ridge between 2 such streams to maximise their cooling potential and one of the major Verandah floats over the stream like a bridge. This also amplifies the flow of wind through the house. The public areas towards the north and east (desirable orientations in this region) are porous verandahs with deep roof overhangs providing protection from direct sun and rain, but allowing continuous movement of the breeze and landscape/ trees
Embed: Effective thermal banking:
The private spaces are banked into the southern edge of the main ridge, overlooking the large ravine/monsoon stream. A large stone wall running from south to north along the ridge binds these spaces but breaks open to allow east-west breezes and landscape to flow horizontally. The dense forest on the west, shades these spaces and the south west corner rises above the land to shield the house from the afternoon sun. The placement of two bedrooms below the pool ensures natural cooling, while the orientation of the pool along the axis of the spine allows the breeze to be cooled before travelling through the house. The elevation of the pool also minimises the likelihood of rats/ frogs/ snakes in the warm/ dry summer months.