‘meswani house’ by serie architects / chris lee & kapil gupta
all images courtesy serie architects

chris lee and kapil gupta of serie architects have sent in images of ‘meswani house’, a single
family residence located around pavna lake, india. their design strived to elude two problems
often associated with the design of large houses -how to organize 10 bedrooms without resorting
to long monotonous corridors and how do to avoid a mass that will be blot on the beautiful
landscape.

their proposal reconsiders this type of house and conceives the organization as an unfolded string
of rooms tied together with courtyards and light wells, turning the circulation spaces into a series
of overlapping semi-outdoor spaces. it encourages the differentiation of circulation pace and views
along this route and turn the rooms to pavilions strung across the site. the massing of the house is
limited to no more than five metres off the ground and numerous strings of rooms are tied along
the sloping site. a vaulted ceiling is used to accentuate the various rooms and spaces. the ceiling
has been created by trimming the various intersecting vaults arranged along the walls of the rotated
rooms. the cantilevered vaulted roofs also form the necessary overhangs that shade verandas from
the sun and rain.

the interior which also consists of an indoor pool

model

model – detail of roof

how the roof connects to the building

how the roof connects to the building

how the roof panels are formed

how the roof panels are formed

instead having a long corridor the building is spread to create different pathways

floor plan

the site where the house will be situated

aerial view

project info:
building type: single family house
location: pavna lake, india
total built area: 1,500 sqm
date: concept design 2009
design team: chris lee, kapil gupta, bolam lee, martin jameson, jin kim, santosh thorat
and suril patel