A Pune Home with 2 Courtyards & a Calm Pooja by the Water!

The sound plays a very important role in our daily lives. So the birds chirping, the water flowing, you know, the sound can be of building materials, you know, just calling out your family members, talking to each other. And if the sound flows in the entire house, in a way that it connects the people of the house together. So that was the concept that we took on while designing this house. And that's why it's called Swar. Hi, this is architect Jinesh Dhimawat. Hi, this is architect Shekhar Na, Studio Archon. We are founders and partners at Studio Archon. Join us for an exclusive home tour of Swar in Pune. To watch premium videos and access PDF ebooks with our house plans, log on to buildofire.com. The link is in the description below. Site is located in Pimpli Chinchur, it is near Pune in Maharashtra. So when first time we visited this site, we found that many green areas, green patches are there. This site is 50 feet by 60 feet wide, wherein the road is about 50 feet front. At the ground floor, we had one huge tree at the corner, which helped us, you know, while planning to have, you know, encompass the maximum view at the same time to gain or attain the privacy that was needed on the upper floors. A pedestrian entry which leads to the passage and from here to the main service core where you have the staircase and the lift. Along with that, we provided one small family sitting area with the service core area, the staircase, the lift blocks, wherein as you enter from the staircase and as you come up in the first floor, you have a focal element with a tree in the courtyard. So this is the arrival court, it is placed at the north side of the bungalow. It is following the Vastu principle also because it is open to sky at the Brahmastan. We have used, in Maharashtra, we call it par, the sitting kattas. We have placed in such a way where formal and informal spaces can be merged together. In the east side, we have designed puja space, which is again in the courtyard with a micro concrete floor, orange floor. This is an open to sky courtyard and the sound that you hear is what defines the project by Swar. In all of the projects that we do, courtyards is a very integral part of our house. The floorings, the material finishes, what all you see over here is all Indian material pallets. The granites has been used, kota has been used, Indian marble has been used. Furniture has been designed, customized on site. Along with that, then we flanked the dining space with the kitchen and then on one side, we placed the master bedroom with their walk-in wardrobes and the toilet side. And from the court, you move into the living space. Now while designing the living room, we specifically designed as a single height and we didn't increase the height of the structure. Then the courtyards next to both of this house were double height spaces. We didn't want any structure coming in between. So this entire space is a column-free space and the entire slab is rested on these eye girders. We have tried to incorporate a small court in the staircase, which floods the light on the staircase also and it lights up the passage. As you come on the level two area, the courtyards open up. We are standing on the second floor. This is the passage which leads to all the bedrooms. The media room is connected by this glass bridge over here and this glass bridge leads to the media room. On the northwest side, we proposed the grandmother's room. We are in the terrace, which is attached to the grandmother's room as well as with the formal living room. So over here is the son's bedroom. To my left, this is daughter's bed. To my right over here is the terrace, which has two entries, one from the son's bedroom and this is the common entry, which becomes a common congregation space of the family. We created a modern adaptation of a Jhahoka, which overlooks again the courtyards. The granite that you can see in the courtyards is what we call as DC satin black granite. So the flooring that we have used over here is a white kumrya marble. This marble is sourced from Rajasthan. It's an Indian marble. On the top terrace, we have used kota, leather polished kota stone. Involvement of the client's family was very high. So each and every minute detail were discussed in detail with the client. They were involved in the process of the entire design. The feedback that I get from the client is like, she was saying that even if I'm in the house alone, I can see the entire house, I can hear the noise, hear the people around me. So that is what we wanted to achieve, to have the vertical connectivity, to have the sound and that is where the Swar came in.