This Eco-Friendly Courtyard Home in Gujarat Flaunts a Rammed Earth Wall (House Tour).
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The first word that the client said was
Some place to escape the bondage of daily city life
And where they could be themselves
Openness was the prime criteria for them
Hello, I'm Kalpesh Dalwadi
I'm Shreya Dalwadi, we represent team Harmony
Today we are here at the Amroliwala residence, Girikunj
This project was conceived as a net zero house
And therefore, move a little closer to Mother Earth and her fantastic elements
When first we came to this site, the site itself gave us some messages
Where to place the house, how much to build
This has led us to a form which is very, very open and very, very transparent
Inside out is the underlying theme that this project was designed
Communicating very, very much through the openings, through the courtyards, through the materials
Entire project is enveloped by an urban forest
Developed through the Japanese technique called the Miyawaki technique
This technique enables the trees to grow as high as three meters in one year
And it will give a little privacy to this house
So basically it has been divided into three built mass
This is public area in the front and private area on the backside
And these two areas are segregated with the central courtyard
And the entry is given through this central courtyard
Courtyard is an inevitable element, especially the houses of Baroda
Traditional architectural science everywhere
Courtyard has been referred as an instrument in the yogic journey
Through the courtyard is the blessings which get showered on you
When we enter in the house, we see our Bhagwanji, Srinanji Bhagwan
Backdrop is the very nice hand-drawn pichvai art from Udaipur
The skylight brings a very nice reflective sensation when it combines with the water body here
The Panch Mahabhuta, the five elements of nature
The earth in the form of walls, the sun, the water
The ether in the openness and the landscape
This is the living area
This is the small dining table and the dining space
And a very minimalistic kitchen here
Oh it's a wonderful kitchen, I love to cook in my kitchen because it's completely open
This living kitchen and dining is segregated with beautiful stone arches
These arches are load-bearing arches
The diameter of this arch is almost 15 feet
Stone we got from the 30 km of radius
The best part of the stone is it comes in the multiple colours
So the thought of using this dark floor, we wanted to balance the light
So we have used kadapa, rough stone for the flooring
This is reinforced rammed earth wall
Mud for this wall is from the site
There are multiple layers which is rammed one by one
As summer is very extreme here, the outdoor temperature goes up to 45-47 degrees in the afternoon
But we are very comfortably standing here
That is due to this roof where we have used the cement board as insulation
And below here what we see is the beautiful batik print as well as bamboo chattai
What sort of openness would be the most appropriate here?
On the upper level, we have given fixed glass opening
That's for visual connection with the sky as well as to get daylight
And at the body level, there are adjustable wooden lures
One more structure is on the back side for the jacuzzi
So again that is to give privacy
Basically bedrooms are on the southern part of the site
This private area is further divided
Attached toilet and common toilet in the centre
There are no direct openings in the toilet and we have given two small dormer windows
Both the stone walls of both the bedrooms houses the utilities
This wall is a deliberate stone wall
This wall is deliberately a rammed earth wall
Forms the main facade of the house also
So that character is a little different and a little hard
This is a softer character of the room
Most notable are the nice louvers
Which give you a flexibility of how much you want to open the bedroom
There is a lot of cross ventilation through these louvers
And you get nice breeze right near your head
When you are lying on the bed, it is a natural tendency to look at the sky
You are connected with the moon at night and you wake up with the sun
So on one hand you are connected to the earth and you are also connected to the sky
And wood which you see here is the recycled wood
The need of the client was having a swing in the area where he can spend his whole day
We really like to sit on the swing and see the sunrise from that side
This project recharges all the water, in fact much more than the water used by the project
Design something which is optimal, not going exorbitant but going appropriate in budget
The thought of using local materials came from there
And our spiritual books say that whatever envelope you are surrounded by is how you become eventually
To induce a lot of natural living, natural materials have been a preference for all spaces