House in Quitla
Goa

The original house sat among rich vegetation in a site that slopes down inward and overlooks paddy fields and a distant water body. The house is estimated to have been constructed in the mid-80s and has a rectilinear plan with a staircase jutting out in a distinct semi-circular form. The house suffered from water leakage issues and the first task was to repair damages and reinforce the roof with waterproofing. The second task was the reorganisation of the plan. Although the footprint was not a small one, the rooms felt introverted and dimly lit in the original plan.

In the new plan, the ground floor serves the common spaces and the first floor has the private bedrooms. There are three main extensions added to the house – one is a kitchen canopy that serves as a spill out into the garden, the second is a small utility, and the third is a deck that looks out to the back of the site offering a spill out for various activities and enlarging the rooms. These interventions are done in fabrication and are distinguished from the original house which maintains its own language. The presence of the deck has opened out the back rooms making them brighter and offers a place for one to interact with the landscape. Looking through the front garden, there is now a visual connect to the back of the site and all the way to the fields and the water body.
The exterior of the house is finished in a warm terracotta palette while the interior spaces are connected in uniform white walls with accents of colour and texture in IPS, carpentry, metal and stone. The original terrazzo flooring is re-polished and grey, white and yellow IPS flooring is introduced in the new spaces. Both the front garden which is smaller and more controlled and the back garden which is larger and wilder, have taken over the site making it a world of its own.

INFORMATION
Project Type: Repair and Restoration of a Residence
Client: Ilka Mueller-Patham and Satyen Patham
Year of Initiation: 2020
Year of Completion: 2022
Location: Quitla, Aldona, Goa
Design Team: Nivedhitha Sekar, Niladri Roy, Aliptha Govindu, Isha Raut
Site Area: 764 sqm
Refurbishment Area: 376 sqm
Extension Area: 130 sqm
Status: Complete
Drawings and Images: Studio Matter