Dinesh and Sarita’s residence

Project: Residence
Client: Dinesh and Sarita Nair
Contractor: Ventures Build Tech
Project Architect: Martin Laferriere
Year: 2006
Location: Utopia, Devanahalli, Bangalore
Site: 10,000 sft
Built-up Area: 4,500 sft.

Sarita and Dinesh are the developers of a gated community called Utopia, and wanted an ecological house in their new community to be the beacon of their philosophy.  The ground floor of the house has two distinct spaces: one for the inhabitants built around a courtyard with an embedded rock surface, and a service core which houses the utility and drying space and an accommodation for drivers.

The ground floor in the home area has a foyer, a puja in the northeast corner of the plot, living room, dining room and kitchen, and three bedrooms.  The first floor of the home is two bedrooms for the children and an open verandah living space for the swing.  In the service core is a small apartment for the household help.

The house was designed to harvest all of its rainwater and also treats its black and greywater, which are used for landscape and recharge.  This project taught new skills to the team at Ventures, such as coloured cement flooring.  It also brought new skilled personnel to the Ventures team.

Structure:

• Walls – predominantly wire-cut bricks in rattrap bond with stabilized mud block and rammed earth.
• Roofing – arch panels on I section and Mangalore tile roofs with Ferro cement supports
• Flooring – coloured cement and clay tiles.