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Architects: Play Architecture
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Bharath Ramamrutham, Pathrik AK, Design Capture
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Lighting Design: Lighting Spaces, Anusha Muthusubramanian
Text description provided by the architects. Within a deep valley, a calm lake, fed by constant rain, develops into a dazzling stream. At Sakleshpur, Karnataka, a site abutting this lake, surrounded by mesmerizing vegetation and fauna, provides an immersive experience in the real world. A calm environment for a vaulting performance, where one might dine and drink in peace.
On a 10-acre site, an organically evolved house stay has expanded into a resort, which required a dining room above an existing stream. This dining space, which can seat up to 50 people, is a square deck with a floating canopy that covers two-thirds of the floor surface. On the west, an open deck views the lake, while on the north and east, a rear deck connects the structure to the existing facilities. A unique, casual environment for exploration and contact with nature exists beneath the deck.
Two separate structural solutions were identified, each of which relieved the base floor plate from the roof, making each system more efficient and cost-effective. A deck slab made of 32 mm thick locally available granite is supported by a forest of thin recycled steel columns that blend in with the existing trees. A 150 mm thick doubly curved Timbrel vault roof (no reinforcing steel) in 5 layers of 15 mm thick ribbed clay tiles, spanning 16.5 m, springs independently from four corners over RCC pedestals, negating difficult terrain and creating a sense of floatation, allowing a column-free interior layout and flexibility in furniture arrangements. The vault's simple steel formwork is recycled into tables, railings, and other structural elements.
This catenary-based doubly curved thin-tile vault in axial compression was built in collaboration with the locals and represents the ideas of "resistance through form." This dining environment, inspired by nature's geometry and forces, smoothly connects the interior to the outdoors, eventually merging and becoming one with it.
