The Hidden House

“The Hidden House” is a proposed residence designed for a site located in Mangalagama within Kandy District. The land takes the form of a narrow strip of 9 meter width in the front which gets further narrowed to the rear side. Connected to a small road from the front, the terrain of the land has a steep drop and then gradually drops further down where it meets a beautiful paddy field. 

The challenges that we faced were to make use of the very little, but very beautiful view which was at the rear end of the site, while responding to the existing terrain. The requirement involved an immediate extension as a separate unit to the Client’s existing house at site in Phase I, which will later be connected to the rest of the house in Phase II after demolishing the existing house. 

The design was strategically done to minimize cost while fulfilling the Client requirement; by designing the bedrooms to occupy in two stories and the rest of the house in a single story, with the use of existing terrain.

House is located in the middle of the site with an 8 meter setback where you could only view a single story. The distance from the access road and the scaled-down height creates a friendly and inviting feeling to the visitor. Once inside the living, you are visually connected to the front yard, paddy field at the rear and the garden in the lower ground level. The open plan form of the interior connects the living, dining, and pantry while the double height connects you with the TV lounge at downstairs. 

The view corridor leads you to the bed rooms and opens up to the field and the rear garden. All the rooms are designed to be at the rear end of the house, separated from living areas while opening into their own portion of the garden or the paddy field. Thus all the rooms have their own and isolated view from different heights and angles, giving the impression of living in a small villa in the countryside.