Studio Symbiosis designed villa KD45 for a joint family in Delhi NCR, Ghaziabad, India.
The client’s design brief was to create a villa with maximum green space and park views. The basement’s home theatre, bar, and gym are connected by a lovely outdoor staircase and a patio to bring in light.
The site of villa KD45 is surrounded by villas on three sides, offering views of the neighborhood park on the shortest 4th side. There are three prominent trees on the site, one at the entrance and two flanking on the rear side of the plot. The design brief from the client was to try and retain these trees as much as possible.
Being a joint family, the client wanted dual interaction in the house. Firstly, privacy zones were required for his parents, his brother’s family, and his family, and secondly, a few spaces where all members living in the house could be together.
Design Solution – Urban living in the lap of nature
In the urban setting of villa KD45, there is a growing disconnect between the user and nature. This project aims to create green urban living to rekindle the residents’ relationship with nature in their immediate surroundings. This villa emerges from the landscape, with the central theme of creating maximum green cover on-site and utilizing the views of the park facing the site.
The odd shape of the plot, along with the views of the neighborhood park, were used as design drivers. Thematically the design looks at flowing the green of the neighborhood park in the site, with streamlines emerging from the park facing the southern side and opening up towards the northern edge of the area. This base grid has been used to define the built-form and landscape zones such as water bodies, hardscape, and soft scape.
The built form is strategically placed on one edge of the site, resulting in a generous landscaped garden on the west side of the plot, which opens up to the double-height family living & dining, thereby extending as an outdoor living room. The built form emerges from the landscape and blends the ground floor to the roof of the building, creating an outdoor connective spine for the villa. This meandering stepped walkway has an outdoor space on the first floor with outdoor shaded seating and connects further to the terrace. This outdoor terrace space on the first floor acts as a balcony and is the direct entrance to the first-floor apartment.
The garden of villa KD45 on the terrace enjoys the views of the neighborhood park with a feeling of being nested with nature. These three outdoor spaces have different usability based on the time of day and season of the year.
Existing trees on site have been retained in the design, and the shading from these trees has been used to create ambient outdoor spaces, which could be used in the extreme climatic conditions of Delhi NCR.
The design intended to create a dichotomy in the façade, with the lower façade being light in nature and a heavy volume floating on top of it. The ground floor has a glass façade to connect with outdoor green spaces, and the first floor has punched windows carved out of concrete to minimize heat gain as this façade is directly exposed to the sun.
A double-height living, dining, and open kitchen space combines the two family floors into one zone of family living and thereby strengthening family connectivity.
Sustainable design strategies have been implemented to create ambient indoor and outdoor spaces. The ground floor has a deep cantilever on the southwest and an east-facing façade on the ground floor to cut the harsh summer sun. Water bodies are provided on the ground floor and terrace to promote evaporative cooling. The roof of the building is a landscaped terrace with earth and grass; this further helps cut down the villa’s direct heat gain.
Sustainability
Given the hot climatic conditions of Delhi-NCR, this project has been designed for human comfort both indoors and outdoors. The shallow water body on the ground floor has been placed in the path of the wind direction, helping in evaporative cooling. The main southwest-facing facade on the ground is recessed to block the direct sunlight during the day while maintaining a seamless visual connection to the outside. In the early evening, some rays of sunlight animate the interior. The upper floor of the building is made of concrete with windows recessed back to cut the south sun.
The three existing trees on site have been retained, creating zones of shadow in the landscape and also helping in reducing the sun exposure of the villa. The green cover on the terrace and the meandering steps reduce direct heat gain. Wind direction was taken into account for cross-ventilation in the house.
Project Info
Site Area L Built-Up Area: 1081 Sqm | 1100 Sqm
Status: Completed
Design: Amit Gupta, Britta Knobel Gupta
Project Lead: Kartik Misra, Nitish Talmale
Project Architect: Govinda Dey. Team: Krishan Sharma, Anjan Mondal, Arun Marigoudra, Ankit Verma, Sakshi Raghav, Samiksha Verma, Vishakha Sharma, Dhriti Sharma
Photographs & Video: Niveditaa Gupta
Consultants Structure: Acecon, Mep: Dbhms, Lighting: Luminars
