Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Exterior Photography, ForestEstate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 3 of 21Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 4 of 21Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 5 of 21Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - More Images+ 16

Matugama, Sri Lanka
  • Architects: Narein Perera
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  120
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2010
  • Design Team: Dilshan Weeraratne, Sameera Dharmasena, Thanuja Gamage, Lakmal Galagoda
  • Structural Engineer: Keerthi Ratnayake
  • Quantity Surveyor: Sunanda Gnanasiri
  • City: Matugama
  • Country: Sri Lanka
More SpecsLess Specs
Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 6 of 21
Courtesy of Narein Perera

Text description provided by the architects. The bungalow sits almost on top of the raised terrain of a 17 ha estate, where the rubber plantation stops and the jungle begins. It’s selected and elevated sitting allows an undisturbed view of the estate, the valley below and the hills beyond, a view that is always in flux with the changing seasons and the cycle of the paddy cultivation.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Exterior Photography, Windows
Courtesy of Narein Perera

The bungalow serves to be a place where the client, a young entrepreneur, can oversee the functioning of the estate periodically and also as a get‐away for him, his family and friends. The client also wanted the flexibility to be able to rent out the bungalow to accommodate a clientele seeking to escape the busy life of the city, a place that would allow quiet rest.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 10 of 21
Courtesy of Narein Perera

The brief of this compact 120m2 bungalow was formulated primarily to cater to this factor of ‘rest’ and thus included only three bedrooms with attached baths and multi‐functional space with a pantry. Service personnel and ancillary spaces needed for the running of the bungalow and the estate were housed in existing buildings downhill, hidden by the tree canopy, allowing the occupier to completely disconnect from all daily routines and yet be provided with all his needs. The levels are linked using an almost external stairway, such that the bedrooms can be afforded the maximum privacy envisioned.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 16 of 21
Floor Plan

The form of the building is inspired by the modest “Chena Watch‐Hut”. A Chena or Shifting Cultivation that usually uses a slash‐and‐burn strategy is a common agricultural method seen in rural Sri Lanka. A watch‐hut is adopted as an elevated refuge for the farmer to protect the cultivation overnight.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Exterior Photography
Courtesy of Narein Perera

The inspired form draws on the generic elements of the watch‐hut that encompasses a ‘Simple Form’, that is ‘Elevated’, ‘Protected’, yet ‘Connected’, allows ‘Maximum vantage’, has a ‘Single Entry’, could be ‘Dismantled’, ‘Re‐usable’ and primarily ‘Touches the Earth Lightly’. The solution adopts primarily an elevated deck extending off the hill, a fungible space that encompasses all living and functional aspects needed with the private areas tucked into a compact timber clad box. The simple asymmetric roof, skewed, its structure extending, touching the earth creates a certain imbalance, temporariness to the whole.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 20 of 21
Section

The structural concept adopts the whole as an element placed on the hillside, rather than one that is embedded into it. The steel supports are the extended lines of the form itself, touching the naturally undulating ground at varying heights in the landscape.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 15 of 21
Courtesy of Narein Perera

The materials used are limited to steel, timber and bamboo tats attempting to keep the lines thin as possible imbuing it with a sense of ‘flimsiness’, keeping intervention on-site minimal, letting the natural ground, the vegetation, the run‐off of water to flow inhibited.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 12 of 21
Courtesy of Narein Perera

The bedrooms are timber clad using the board and board technique of wall cladding, imbuing a certain texture inside and out, and easing the solidity of the box, yet creating a protective envelope for the occupant. The east-facing façades of the bedrooms are left unclad, allowing maximum views.

Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera - Image 13 of 21
Courtesy of Narein Perera

Originally published February 12, 2014.

Project gallery

See allShow less
About this office
Cite: "Estate Bungalow / Narein Perera" 23 Nov 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/475721/estate-bungalow-narein-perera> ISSN 0719-8884

Courtesy of Narein Perera

斯里兰卡小屋 / Narein Perera

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.