Located in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Mehra Musing is a residence designed for a family spanning three generations. The home, set on a compact plot of 480 square yards is akin to a dark grey ‘box’ in its stone create plaster exterior, secretive of the choreography it holds inside. Upon entering through the narrow passage in the front, a first glimpse of the sunlit interior with the dance of floatng levels leads to an unforgettable discovery. The clients’ affinity for meditation and Buddhist practices required a chanting room in addition to the programme of private bedrooms, living/dining areas and home office. In this vein, spaces in the home are imagined as meditative pauses at various levels of wooden inserts that are complimented with white walls doused in the sun glow of natural light.
As a response to the site’s linear geometry and open vistas only on the shorter sides, volumes are stacked, staggered and “pushed into” one another to allow most parts of the home to be open to light, sound and wind. This split-level layout is an unusual approach to multi-storeyed family living. One enters the foyer and living room at the lower ground level, but is soon drawn into a series of spaces visually connected from above, below or transversely across each other, simultaneously. The conventional staircase core is broken down to become an expanded internal verandah, which appears and disappears along one’s journey from the subterranean home office to the upper terraces, to be discovered behind the next corner.
Drawings:
