This 2 Acre Hyderabad Farmhouse is a Renovation Project (House Tour).

A farmhouse is actually an experiential home. So you first start with experience, not with program. So when we imagine the house, it was not just about an expansion of space, but seeing it as temporarily, an expansion of time. Soon there's going to be marriages in the house, after that there will be grandkids in the house. So those future generations, will they enjoy the house as much as what it is being designed today? Hi, I'm Madan Ramaiah, I'm the director and partner of FHD India. Today we are at Sanath's farmhouse. For exclusive content on the cast and walkthrough, and the PDF with the technical documentation and plans of the farmhouse, please visit buildafy.com, you'll find it there. The farmhouse actually started as a very small renovation project. When the client came to us, it was an existing building, just a family room, one bedroom and an extension on the first floor. When the clients came to us and asked us to just renovate those interior areas, we felt it did not truly reflect the kind of environment they are looking for. What they were looking for was not just an upgraded bedroom, but a complete change in lifestyle in the way it was working here. We actually sat with them, tried to understand how this was going to become a part of their life. Not just a building we finish and go, but something that pulls them out of the city, makes them come and spend their weekends here. Hi, I'm Anisha, I'm here at my family farmhouse in Aziz Nagar, along with our architect and team Buildafy. We wanted our farmhouse to be different from the feel of our house in the city. Our idea of building a farmhouse wasn't just to escape the city life, but was also to build a house to create memories for the future generations. The location of the project is in Aziz Nagar, which is a little outside of the city. The entire site is around 1.75 acres, a little less than two acres, and it directly abuts a lake. Beyond that, there is a lake setback, within which we are not allowed to build any permanent structure. So we have developed an entire project a little away from the lake, following these regulatory norms. Hi, I'm Naveen Ponnada, landscape architect. This is the lake edge of the project, which is more shorter in length. So this is the first challenge that we have. I see 90% of the site is not exposed to the lake edge. The second challenge is a polyhouse. Third challenge is a grid of mango trees that are already there on the site. Fourth challenge is an open space, which is unattended, with a maid's room. And fifth challenge is an existing building, where it has no connection with the main spaces. There is a huge gap between what is happening in the front to where actually we want to see and enjoy, right? So we wanted the house in terms of a visual connection towards the lake, and we wanted the experience of the lake and the green to come all the way towards the house. In terms of arrival, the main access was actually towards the southwest of the plot. It's a very small road. We pushed the compound wall back, as if the entry of the house is behind by another 15 feet. We are at the entrance of the house. We wanted to make a tranquil, sort of a soft, sensorial experience of entering the house. The floating bridge is on a water body that we have created to kind of create a small separation between the house and the entrance area. Somehow feels like you're leaving the world behind and slowly moving into your farmhouse. So this is the original part of the house that was retained. So the house itself is divided into a zone, which is kind of a resting zone, which has all the bedrooms in it, and then the living zone, which had all the newer part of the house that we are constructing, which included a living, a dining, and play area. The puja area is beautifully nestled between the living and dining, and it's a small niche but with a beautiful front. The center of the home is now connected by this beautiful double height courtyard, which brings in natural light both from the south side and from the east side on the first floor. We are at the heart of the farmhouse. The staircase itself is a unique floating element in the interior space. We tried hard to make it as thin as possible. Our landscape architect actually came up with this cool idea to not just create a sculpture but actually architecturally link the upper floor and the lower floor, a kind of a nurturing farm mom and child sort of a relationship between the old and the new. So the staircase from below comes and connects into this common zone. The bedroom quarters remains as it is on the ground floor. From the upper floor, you get views into the farmlands. On the southeast side, we have created an open gazebo. We arrive at the second floor through a series of steps on a linear stair, and you land into an entertainment area. The second floor is actually split into three zones. The main entertainment zone, where we have a built-in seating. And towards the lakeside, we have created a bar and there is a small nook with a very cozy corner that we have created. Each of these spaces in terms of flooring is defined by different materials. Bar is set up in a way that it kind of opens out all the way into the main deck and into this unobstructed view of the lake beyond. So compositionally, the entire building is a series of cascading terraces. So from this, the upper level, which is your bar deck, to the lounge level on the first floor, to the outdoor connection to the lawn on the ground floor. So it almost feels like people see each other looking into this beautiful lake view. From the east towards the west, the landscape starts to trickle in and parts of the house start to move out, seeking the water. We are at the sunken lounge space where we have a mango tree. This is a mango tree called Punasa, which fruits all around the year. So this is an existing tree around which we have done this space and tried to bring in the earthy character through the laterite stone. We have created a machan with a water body here. This is the closest we get to the lake. It's sort of an elevated platform under a wooden roof. Lot of interesting landscape elements with a pond connecting to the lake. The machan is designed around the peepal tree, keeping peepal tree intact. Mostly an architect's biggest job is to find the right client. It's not about designing the project. Unless you have the right client, you can't design the best projects. So we were happy that way that they understood us. They kind of helped us iterate the right options forward. So it was not just about a weekend home in which you rest, but it is a series of experiences that are tied together. That was the goal that we set for the farmhouse.