House of Overlaps

Project Name: House of Overlaps
Authors: pk_iNCEPTiON

CITATION

Low-scale houses carry with them a possibility of being an archetype for living in the many small towns and peri-urban areas in India, where one has access to building cultures. Designed for a priest, this 190 square meter house is designed as a series of multi-use, interconnected spatial moves that follow the activity and living patterns of the individual for whom it is designed. This very specific and sensitive response to the aspirations and comforts of an individual is then accentuated through mature employment of spatial design strategies that lean on transitions and thresholds for the architecture of the house to unfold.

Built with frugality and eloquence, the plan presents a special solid-void relationship where a sequence of built and open spaces with changing enclosure and porosity help navigate the functional aspects in a multitude of permutations and combinations. The house can be closed or open to the street. It presents options of looking into the front or the centre, or the back. The design offers many choices, each with a set of carefully articulated interrelationships.

For the climate of the arid plains, the house accounts for a mostly hot, sometimes humid and sometimes cold climate. Intelligent detailing with inverted beams for the roof slab and deep recesses for openings helps mitigate the impacts of the environment, creating a comfortable sanctum within. With multiple degrees of enclosure, the house enables access to the sky in all levels of privacy.

The most notable aspect of the house is the articulation of the social space. This small project, rich in ideas, built with respect and poise, and offered to the user with generosity, represents the power of architecture to make possible the most extraordinary moments in the most ordinary of contexts and therefore, the House of Overlaps by pk_iNCEPTiON is awarded a Citation for The Merit List.