The brief presented by a client called for a consciously designed ecosystem, integrating multi-layered domestic spaces, coherent materiality, energy efficiency and mobility for the elderly. Preliminary spatial requisites indicated a design that featured:

• A dedicated zone designed exclusively for the solitary client, with an attached lap-pool, bedroom, lounge, walk-in closet, kitchenette, gymnasium and a private garden.
• A semi-private zone for the client and her guests, with two bedrooms and amenities.
• A public core, an entrance hall, living area, dining room, powder room and a library.
• A service wing with a spacious kitchen, storage, laundry with utility areas for domestic help.

Each space within the villa, was conceptualized and optimized considering the tonal qualities of indirect light in order to enhance the client’s spatial experience within the house.

Spatial Considerations for the Design:

Axial Circulation - A branched layout with axial routes for circulation ascertains continuity of movement without interfering with the privacy of allied spaces. Concurrent axial intersections limn a diffusing quality of space at several junctures, mediating the user to relate his/her presence within an extended spatial realm –distinguishing the degrees of privacy and receptivity.

Contiguous Disjuncture – As a diagram, the volumes and voids formed around the central axes conciliate the rotation of the superimposed grids, allowing disjunct spatial formations which function distinctly, despite of their circulatory interconnectedness. This rotation moderated by the widening brick masonry accommodates most of the storage, giving away open-ended unobstructed indoor spaces.

Subdued Liminality – The transitions maintain a convergence of functions and activities which otherwise require segregation between indoors and outdoors, allowing spaces to fluidly merge into one another without confining the extents of built and unbuilt.

Hierarchy of Spaces – both, in terms of volume and nature of activity, the spaces follow a progressive pattern, unveiling a series of transitions from closed to open and public to private.

Transparency – achieved through a series of vertical and horizontal punctures piercing the interlocking planes – superimposing vistas of interiors and exteriors – thorough visual penetration through lines of sight.

Asymmetry – implicitly, the spaces characterise irregularities and asymmetry with an intention to innovate the underlying redundancy

Climatic Buffers – Designed for a sub-tropical climate, master spaces are planned alongside deep verandahs on southern and western sides, enabling efficient shading and cross-ventilation through the wide climatic buffers.

Composite Structure – Brick masonry and RC frame structure compositely help achieve structural integrity along with thermal heat storage; enabling year-round thermal comfort indoors. The eastern side is enveloped by a thick layer of brick masonry which insulates against the harsh morning heat.

Integrity of Natural entities and Phenomena – The palette of materials used in the house, involve specific yet diverse constituents, in a way that the resultant space can be envisaged to senesce with time, embracing the transient instinctive decadence. 

Simultaneity / Concurrence – deviating from the formal domesticity of an ordinary household, the residence resonates with autonomy that governs each space to function independently, yet coherently.