the selfless house by LRa from india

Project: The Selfless House

Client: Mrs. & Mr. Ramapanicker
Location: Thevakkal, Aluva, Kerala
Plot area: 30 cents (1214.5 sq.m) Total floor area : 158 sq m.

“But now sustainability is such a political category that it’s getting more and more difficult to think about it in a serious way. Sustainability (green) has become an ornament”

“One of our theories is that one can offset this excessive compulsion toward the spectacular with a return to simplicity”
-Rem Koohaas

‘A relaxed, laid back house for a retired life’ and an exploration into how ‘true’ one can be to materials and to the client’s needs - that is what ‘The Selfless House’ is all about.

All building built long back were ‘green’. It was not about ‘rating’ or such, but about the honesty of how you build and with what you build. This project was an exercise on similar grounds. We wanted to design a project that required less or no electricity at all (for lighting and ventilation) during that daytime and hence saving a lot of energy. Upon intense calculations solar power turned out to be financially unviable and hence we had to resort to ideas like tall rooms and courtyards and vents at strategic positions.

The site is part of a large plot shared by the old couple and their son, with a common entrance gate. Highly terraced front yard is left as it is - wild and natural, only the immediate surrounding i.e. a 1m walkway, all around is paved.

The open sit out has been designed with a ‘thinna’ to sit around and catch the fast moving life below in the streets. A combination worked out with polished and roughly finished Kota , is a treat for the bare feet as one steps into the sit out.

The main door has been detailed with a combination of polished and painted wood, like all the other doors of the house. It is into a connecting passage/foyer that one directly enters from the sit out, one that connects the dining and living. But it is the internal court that one sees first, with its circular sky light, casting wonderful patterns on the laterite wall, which has been given a smeared on look with a paste of powdered laterite stone and white cement. This treatment of the laterite wall has been continued throughout the house both inside and out, as highlights.

The program is very simple with the living room being placed a little away from the other more private areas. The dining area gives access to the open kitchen, the two bedrooms and the pooja. The pooja has a skylight worked out with several 100mm diameter PVC pipes, giving a divine glow if it isn’t casting an interesting pattern on the wall. Both the bedrooms have courts abutting them. These courtyards are secured from the outside with vertically placed G.I pipes giving the exterior form a very unique touch as well as extending the volume of the interiors.

Importance has been given to the use of natural materials to its best. The main flooring is a combination of Yellow Oxide and polished Kota. The oxide has been continued into the toilets as well; in a different color on to the walls (hence minimizing the amount of stone). The laterite wall with its very different finish also stands out. The ceiling is not to be missed, with the poured concrete - exposed with the patterns of the rough wood shuttering.

The rooms flow one into another making it a large well ventilated space reducing the use of fans. All skylights and tall rooms have vents at strategic positions to expel hot air thus maintain a relatively low temperature in the interiors.

The house was not designed with how and what should fill the interiors rather it was designed with an attitude to take anything the clients wanted to bring in. A selfless attitude that is fast vanishing from our designs. This project marks a departure for us from our previous works making us believe that when we return to simplicity and build honestly they remain ‘green’.