"The house is built on an 800 sq. m land; nested in a gated colony in suburbs of Lucknow. The primary design idea revolved around three spaces - dwelling unit of a young couple with a kid, a workshop for their clothing business, a unit for parents and basement for parking, and other utilities"

A very comprehensive Vastu compliance governed the footprint of the house, number of columns, number of steps, location of doors, gates, levels of the site and even the construction sequence. There were numerous challenges and constraints during the design process; and it roughly took us eight months to arrive at an open ended design which was still open to what we call last minute tweaks.

A lush green space encompasses the house from all sides. The clients are very soft spoken and private people, they like to keep to themselves, and so the entrances to both the dwelling units were kept very private. The only visible access to the house is a staircase which takes you to the workshop area on the first floor. This entry was designed to be very obvious for the employees who would come and go daily.

Just beside this staircase a nonchalant green passage takes you to a small niche in the inner quarters with bright yellow and white patterned floor; at the end a cedar wood door reveals that you are standing at the very doorstep of the ground floor. Once inside, all sun bathed spaces surprise you with shiny colorful terrazzo tiles, high jack arches, and tall doors.

The workshop space is draped in white walls, white floor with dash of terracotta in arch-paneled ceiling. The abundance of white in the workshop helps the tailor masters to identify the slightest of color variations of the fabric. By design this hall is very well lit and ventilated. Tall windows provide ample sunlight and add to the scale of this large space. The workshop also houses a double height office area looking at the garden in the front and terminates into an ornate corbelled balcony in the west, where one can admire the setting sun.

Once you move up from the workshop, the second floor opens into a big central courtyard with white and yellow floor which celebrates the brick entrance. It also doubles up as play area for the young kid in the family. The staircase and guest room protect this open space from the glare of the setting sun in the west and it opens up for natural light from the north.

A significant volume of the house hangs on a 6m long cantilever in the front. This helps open the up the indoors into an open sit out which then subsequently flows with the outdoor green. The blocking of the house heavily rests on the front and rear cantilever.

Ratio of walls to fenestrations, play of heights and the variation in textures come together in a synchronized manner to create the envelope of the house. The subtle palette of brick and concrete with a few strategically placed inclined planes, absorb and reflect sunlight at various angles and add to the earthy charm of the form.

The brick corbelling work was very painstakingly worked out, with detailed drawings of each course. The bricks used for the façade work are not wire cut bricks; we chose the regular locally available bricks. The variation in their sizes, textures and colors of these bricks added to the character of the façade. All the brick walls other than toilets are made using rat trap bonds.

We hired local masons and artisans for all works; who had no experience of exposed brick work and making them understand the brick corbelling details seemed like a distant dream. A lot of training sessions and sampling was done to get the right finish and detail. The team of interns and architects worked on site with the artisans. The jack arches were very meticulously crafted; the sample of first jack arch took us a week to perfect. Pre-cast arch panel making was a challenge; the terrazzo flooring had a few setbacks but every team member rose to the occasion and gave his/her best. Our clients remained very patient with us and worked with the team to make their dream house. This project is an outcome of perseverance and grit of each and every person involved.