INDIA DESIGN ID 2024: FEB 7-12, 2024, NSIC GROUNDS, OKHLA, NEW DELHI
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INDIA DESIGN ID 2024 | 15-18 FEB, 2024 | NSIC GROUNDS, OKHLA, NEW DELHI

Home > Residence 568 by Charged Voids

Residence 568 by Charged Voids

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Fact File
Location: Haryana
Size: 300 sq m
Principal Architect: Aman Aggarwal
Photography by: Javier Callejas

 

Residence 568 by Charged Voids is a sustainable contemporary family home in the small satellite town of Panchkula, Haryana, featuring a cross-axis spatial concept. The house is designed around a courtyard, with all the public spaces overlooking it. The varied scale of public and private spaces and their different interactions with the exterior were a central idea of the project. The public spaces are expanded volumetrically to emphasise their importance as congregation spaces. The concept of the cross-axis is utilised in this project with an approach adopted for smaller houses. The vertical axis holds the entrance and is mostly transparent, allowing a visual connection to the interiors and the backyard. The horizontal axis facilitates circulation, with the staircase acting almost as an amphitheatre overlooking the courtyard. The functions are divided by floor, with the ground floor for public spaces, the first for couples and the second for children. The ground floor holds the living spaces, a courtyard with a water body, a guest bedroom, kitchen and dining spaces, a central lobby, and a staircase.

The first floor holds two bedrooms for the couples, along with their respective toilets and dressing rooms. These bedrooms overlook the central space with openable shutters, almost like “jharokhas” in the ancient Indian “havelis.” The second floor holds two bedrooms, one for two boys and one for three girls, each with its terrace garden. The idea was to create an almost segregated private zone for the youngsters. Also, the interaction of these rooms with the exterior is through the terrace gardens instead of opening to the road (and overlooking the school building) in the front and houses at the rear. The area for domestic help is also on this level, with separate access via a spiral staircase in the rear court. Another significant aspect of the design was to resolve the parking issue, as almost all house owners on the street own at least three cars. The clients owned four cars, and we wanted them not to clog the street (especially at night) like other owners. This was resolved by an amorphous boundary with foldable extensions so that all cars could be parked inside while only covering a part of the front ramps to the house.

On the sustainable features of the home:

The main strategy is to cut down the thermal intake of the house. Since the residence is a row house plot, the longer edges are common to neighbour residences and the shorter edges form the front and rear facades that face west and east respectively. Hence, to cut down the harsh sun of the west , a specific metal “jaali” pattern has been designed to allow in diffused light. The terrace gardens on the second floor add to the thermal mass to the roof reducing heat gains and keeping the living spaces cool. The central courtyard with a water body allows cool winds being directed and channelized into the house. The courtyard facades are so designed that do not allow direct summer sun to enter into the living spaces at the ground floor. The double height spaces and the stairwell allow stack ventilation for the whole house. The skylight above the stairwell allows diffused light to enter and accommodates vents to throw out hot air. The top floor bedrooms opening into north facing terrace gardens avoid harsh sunlight to enter these rooms.

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