This Stone House in Rajasthan Cools Down Temperature with Courtyard Design (House Tour).

You know how poetry is, it is a language in which someone expresses their feelings. And I feel like this stone over here is expressing the entire identity of this house. Hi, this is Shreya and I'm from Studio ShoonNet. Today we're going to take you around our project, Ananda Poetry in Stone. For detailed chapters and PDFs, visit buildofire.com. When we started this project, we were in this thought process that we will do mud construction. And then as soon as I reached the site, I saw like this abundance of stone here. That's when I decided that we'll go for a stone house. We did not want us to construct something which is going to be overpowering or going to dominate the entire space. We wanted it to kind of blend with it. And hence also the usage of stone because everything over here in the surrounding is also made in the same material. So this project is located at the outskirts of a city in Rajasthan called Bilwada. This project is very much in the countryside. As soon as we started with the planning, the clients were very sure that they want a Vastu-compliant house. Right now, this plan in the northeast is on the top. And we are entering here. And you enter, there's a driveway with a drop-off. And from there, you start walking towards the site. The site area is a two-acre land. And the construction that we have done over here is 10,000 square feet. We have placed our house here. As the clients wanted something very Indian yet contemporary, and because we are at a place which is mostly hot and dry, so we decided to go for a courtyard planning where we enter from this northeast part of the house and we have our building all around. I wanted the house to feel like you're entering on a grander entrance. So we have given a raised garden. Through the raised garden, we have a pathway coming inside which has longer steps so that once you're coming through the driveway, and then you have an approach towards the house. Then you have almost two foyers. One is an open foyer, and then the other is a semi-open foyer. As soon as you enter the foyer, the first thing that you will look at is your swimming pool. And then the second thing that you'll see is a tree which is right here. There's a clear view from one side to the other side. So that kind of makes you feel that you're entering into a very open space. And that was the whole aim that, you know, because it's a second home and it is very close to the nature, we wanted the guest and the clients to feel very close to the nature itself. We did not want it to be a very closed, shut-off space. This is the veranda which is right outside all our rooms. Why I was saying that it's poetry in stone because you actually have to pick up each stone and you have to cut it in the right shape so that, you know, it looks like it's a random rubble but the masons are actually picking up each stone, placing it in the right way. On your right, you have the living room and the dining. And with the living room and dining, you have a raised step for the bar area. And then next to the living room and the dining, there's a secondary entrance for the caretakers and the servants to come from. But that also acts like our wind tunnel. Because there's so much heat passing around in the area, we decided to give punctures of air in the middle. So, there's a puncture of air from here and there's a puncture of air from here. And as soon as this hot air comes in contact with the water, the water absorbs the heat, it evaporates, thus leaving a feeling of cooling around the space which helps us in keeping this courtyard quite cool even during a very hot peak season. The walls around the kitchen, between the kitchen and the living area are chamfered because this is the direction in which the wind is also coming. So, we've kind of tried to create a funnel effect with evaporative cooling here. All of this is done only to reduce the heat coming inside the building as much as possible so that the people who are going to be residing inside can enjoy it as much as they want to. Next to the kitchen and store, you have the steps which are going towards the first row. We have a city called Bijolia which is right next to Bilwada where we get these stones called Bijolia stones. As soon as I saw these stones, we thought we will do this kind of staircase. We have a very amazing artist in this project. His name is Kadam. With the staircase and the chandelier and this artwork, I think this has become the favourite corner of the project for me. Next to the steps, you have the service area. After the service area, you again have the open space which will take you towards the backyard. And it is also like a semi-open green space. As we walk through the courtyard towards the backyard, we have this door. We have used metal with terracotta which is giving it enough strength. Changing rooms are right next to it. After the changing room, you have the master bedroom which has an attached dresser and the washroom. After that, you have the daughter's bedroom. Every room in this house has a very different interior or vibe for it because it's more like how every person who is going to live in that room wants their room to be like. And we try to speak to every family member and understand their requirements and how they want the room to look and everything. And after the daughter's bedroom, you have another central space which is again there for the wind direction. But we have also kept it like a semi-open machan sort of space where we have put this swing which has become like a central part for the family to hang out and sit down. And next to that, you have your son's bedroom. And then we come to the fourth bedroom which is actually the left of your entrance and that's the guest bedroom. Then once you go from the steps to the first floor, we have only two spaces on the first floor. A store and a pantry and a big hall for their parties or family room. I feel like, you know, it is such a brilliant material that it has so many nice properties like it has thermal mass and the way it is like, you know, the aesthetics like you don't have to put plaster over it, you don't have to paint anything over it and whatever it is, it is so true to its identity. In the country, we are moving towards so many different materials and the materials which are so conventional like cement and bread bricks and everything. It's really difficult to get masons and labourers to work on the materials like this. So, for me and for the clients, it was a very difficult process, I would say. I feel like it was a determination of me and more than me, it was a determination of the client who wanted this project to finish and to finish the way we thought of it to finish. So, I think it's not just us, it's a teamwork.