Rural Twin House – Harsha Raju

For the construction techniques, we had taken inspiration from the renowned Architect Laurie Baker’s approach by opting for a Load-Bearing construction with Random Rubble Foundation. The exposed brick walls are built in Rat-Trap Bond. For the roofing, we used Filler Roof Slabs with affordable filler materials such as Terracotta pots and reclaimed Mangalore Clay Roof Tiles

RURAL TWIN HOUS

The site is located in Munivalai, a small village in South India. The client was a young working professional, living in Chennai, who had decided to move back to this village which is his native and start an organic farming business. He wanted his home in one corner of the site overlooking the cattle, poultry and organic vegetable farms spread throughout the site

The requirement was to build two homes connected internally with a semi-private courtyard. One home for the client and the other one is for his parents. We had limited funds for such a comprehensive requirement and hence a lot of research and planning went into the design, well ahead of the commencement of the construction.

In order to bridge the cost and design equation, we had decided to source all the materials locally and take a sustainable direction. On exploring, we came to know that the village had enough supplies of rubble stones and also the skilled labor who knew rubble masonry construction. There was a 100 year old building in ruins in one corner of the site which we demolished and recovered a large quantity of rubble stones, sand and two wooden columns. Within a 2 mile distance, we found handmade bricks with excellent compression strength

On further research, we had found 3 demolition sites within a 8 mile radius which contained good quality Teak wood doors and windows. We had decided to source the ones that suited our requirement and refurbish them. For the Flooring, we decided to opt for Athangudi Tiles, a 10sq.inch handmade tile, which is cost-effective, aesthetic and also has natural cooling properties on account of the natural earth used in the manufacturing. We found a nearby pottery village where terracotta products like pots, etc., were their primary occupation. With these data, we proceeded to the Schematic Design Phase

SECTION A (1 : 100)

SECTION B (1 : 100)

DESIGN

The village has a moderate hot climate, with maximum radiation coming from the South and the West. The predominant wind direction is West. Therefore, the house was designed in such a way that the tallest part of the building is in the south which shades the courtyard, and the bedrooms. Fenestrations were placed carefully to make maximum use of the predominant wind direction. In the north, they were sized bigger to utilize the reflected sunlight with minimal radiation

By limiting the roof heights of every space specific to their needs, we reduced material usage which in turn created interesting levels in the facade. The Rural Twin house thus stands as an expression of a collage of these indigenous and reclaimed materials. Today their second life continues.