Building conceived as two programmed volumes held together by a bridge-corridor, landscaped courts, and shaded terraces

Architects: SDeG
Location: Visakhapatnam, India
Year: 2017
Area: 14.681 ft²/ 1.364 m²
Photo courtesy: Shamanth Patil
Description:

“HKS house is located uphill in a quiet residential neighborhood in Visakhapatnam. The owners wanted a home with clearly delineated private spaces for the family, and a separate block to host guests and events. The building is therefore conceived as two programmed volumes held together by a bridge-corridor, landscaped courts, and shaded terraces.

At the ground level, the owners can park, meet visitors at a home-office and organize shows at the gallery. Guests are either led up to an entry stairway to the verandah or towards the north lawns for a celebration. The northern volume also holds a formal living room, a covered deck for brunches and whirlpool bath-lounge, for the children and their guests. The eastern court and bridge together form the pivot of the home. It is both open and enclosed and offers varying degrees of interaction between the private and public areas of the building. The bridges (on the first and second floor) are capped with a large coffered floor that forms a façade recess, causing a low-pressure zone, forcing the north easterlies through the core of the house.

The second volume includes five large bedrooms along the southern edge, all reaching out to either capture views or winds from the Arabian Sea. On level one, the old and young meet in the family lounge and western deck. This block also includes a double-height formal dining room, kitchens, utility spaces and staff accommodation. HKS house has deep overhangs, thick edges, and wraps around greens, intended to keep a large internal volume as cool as possible. The exterior faces are rendered in smooth white and granular grey (cement plaster panels); mild textures to attenuate the effects of saline air and coal dust from the port nearby.”