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Architects: DADA Partners
- Area: 15000 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Ranjan Sharma / Lightzone India
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Manufacturers: ALCOI Windows India, Amit marbles, Jindal Steel, Modifloat Glass
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Lead Architects: Mukul Arora
Text description provided by the architects. Set on a 1-acre parcel, the Portico house is designed around two enormous Jamun trees. The trees become the focal point of the two courtyards of this house: East and West Court. The house's public rooms, formal and informal lounges, entry lobby, and puja room flank the festive east court while the west court becomes the private green space for the house. The master bedroom (on both floors), master den, and guest bedroom open out to the tranquil west court. A long limestone-clad feature wall extending outwards from the entry lobby provides privacy to the west court from the adjoining drive court and also gives a directional quality to the entry experience.
The house skims around the lush, inviting canopy of the twin trees, and the floor-to-ceiling glass threshold connects the indoors with the outdoors. As a uniform and somewhat anachronistic architectural device, the portico lines the edge of the tree-facing rooms, providing deep shaded terraces and porches to step out. Custom-made mild steel ‘H’ columns and hardwood-clad fins define the outer face of the porticos and bring a nuanced cadence to the elevation. The same Portico element defines the house's generous and shaded entry patio. The steel columns' closely pillared and repetitive rhythm evokes the traditional trabeated Indian archetype.
As per the Sawhney family's design brief, the double-height informal lounge was centrally positioned along the eastern court with spectacular views of the full canopy of the jamun tree. The upper floor has yet another special moment, with a peninsula-like lounge jutting out and capturing views on all three sides. The upper lounge and its 14’ deep covered terrace bring the two Jamun trees back in one single experience.
