Kokum House 2019

Private Residence with Borrowed Garden

The Kokum House is programmatically designed as a private residence situated in a village called Quitla, near Aldona. Half of the site belongs to an orchard zone, and the house thus is contained on a small footprint of 9m x 12m with five bedrooms, one kitchen, toilets and living spaces. It is a highly economical project. 

On the apex of a small mound, the house opens up to beautiful vistas with typical Goan houses on three sides and one side facing the Orchard. The roof is designed with a high pitch roof to reflect the steep slopes of the local village church. It also works as a climatic device to reduce the heat ingress. An atrium is carved within this reticent frame to bring in light, and ventilation. Spatially, it renders lightness in the house, and at night, induces a contrasting effect, wherein the house lights up against the darkness of the lush surroundings. 

INFORMATION

Project Type: Residential

Client: Vikrom Mathur

Engineer: Rahul Deshpande, RDA, Goa

Civil Contractor: Santosh Kolar

Aluminium Contractor: Girish Sanvordekar, Alpha-Tech Glazing

Master-Mason: Kothandan Enba

Year of Initiation: 2015

Year of Completion: 2019

Location: Quitla, Aldona, Goa

Design Team: Ruturaj Parikh, Pradeep Kodikara, Jineshi Samaraweera, Rishiraj Sarkar, Ranga Ravi, Azna Parveen

Site Area: 920 Sq M

Built-Up Area: 270 Sq M

Status: Complete

Images: Studio Matter

Photography: Rishul Bangar and Studio Matter

The living experience is simple, and gestures such as open-to-sky showers jutting out as cubicles in the façade, completely openable louvered step-out spaces on the ground floor, the quality of light, embellish it. A restricted palette of materials outlines the complete aesthetic, composed of tactile materials such as laterite blocks, cement floors, non-plaster materials, steel, glass, minimal elements and warm hard wood. The envelope itself is rendered as a monolithic grey structure (cement finish with titanium punning), replete with an industrial roof of Zinc AI sheets. The kitchen has been pocketed well in the living space rendered black with all its fittings and appliances among the white walls and grey flooring of the house. A wooden deck extends out and a second skin made of GI pipes and bamboo completes this rugged outdoor area. 

The amalgamation of different materials to vide it as one tall mass which stood out amongst all low heighted structures in the vicinity was tactfully done. 

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