Brick house
Year
2013
Location
Wada, Maharashtra
Project
Farmhouse
Brick House is a climate-responsive farmhouse in Wada where exposed brick, curved walls and low-cost construction techniques come together around a shaded central courtyard.
Context
Set within the rural landscape of Wada, the 2,500 sq ft farmhouse sits amid hills, farms and an existing natural setting. The starting point was a simple idea of a brick home rooted in the memory of rural living, but with spaces that remained open to landscape, light and breeze. The project therefore became an exploration of how local materials, climate-responsive construction and an unconventional spatial language could come together in a contemporary home.
Response
The house is organised as a fluid sequence of spaces around a central courtyard and water body, with curved walls, changing levels and carefully framed openings dissolving conventional room boundaries. Brick and stone arches, jalis and openings bring daylight and cross-ventilation deep into the house, while the upper bedroom shades the courtyard from the south-west sun.
Material and construction became integral to the architecture. Curved rat-trap bond walls, filler slabs with earthen pots, exposed brick, local stone, built-in furniture and an experimental ferrocement-and-bamboo roof reduced the dependence on steel, cement and brick while giving the house its tactile, organic character. Many details were developed through physical models, mock-ups and experimentation directly on site with local craftsmen.
Vitthal Dupare
