The Brick House

This house was designed overcoming many challenges from its context and site. It’s located in the middle of the city, right next to a school. The client’s existing house is located at the current site, where he was facing many problems. Being located in the city, the neighborhood is chaotic and little children from the school throwing stones at the house is one of his major concerns. He wanted an environment where he could live peacefully with his wife.

 

The house is set back from the front of the house, keeping space for a future commercial development that the client has in mind. School side has a big retaining wall which drains water to the site during the rainy season. The opposite boundary is facing a private road. Due to these reasons we had to keep reservation from both sides making the buildable area small and very narrow.

 

Creating private spaces while allowing light and ventilation was a true challenge due to the above site constraints, as well as the site being small and very narrow. Perforated brick walls, a central courtyard and the rear garden were used to bring in natural light and ventilation while creating privacy for the house.

 

From the front and to the side of the private road, the boundary wall is designed in perforated brick. The courtyard also helps interconnecting the interior spaces with natural elements and making the house look more spacious than it actually is.

 

The terrace on the upper floor is also surrounded with perforated brick walls to create privacy. All the windows are extruded out as boxes to provide safety from stone throwing at the school side. Bay windows are created on the first floor to bring in ventilation without compromising privacy.

 

Exposed brick, blocks, exposed RCC slabs and titanium floor finishes are used in harmony to create this robust house design and to minimize the construction cost.