House of Sweeping Shadows by Abin Design Studio

The House of Sweeping Shadows, Bansberia, West Bengal – Abin Design Studio

This project designed by Abin Design Studio, comprised a design intervention for a part of the client's existing property. While in one half of the land stood the client's residence, the other half was primarily bare save for a half-built 2-storey structure to one side and a central pond that the client had walled up.
House of Sweeping Shadows by Abin Design Studio

House of Sweeping Shadows by Abin Design Studio

This project comprised a design intervention for a part of the client’s existing property. While in one half of the land stood the client’s residence, the other half was primarily bare save for a half-built 2-storey structure to one side and a central pond that the client had walled up. Although they wished to retain the existing structure, we were encouraged to update this extension to a leisure zone with a contemporary look.

 

House of Sweeping Shadows by Abin Design Studio
Animation / Development of Form

The brick-lined pond was converted to a swimming pool while the structure houses a gym, changing rooms and guest entertainment lounges overlooking the pool and lawns. The landscape incorporates a barbeque station, a sunken sit-out and a small aviary amidst the hard and soft scaped open areas.

Given the unremarkable nature of the existing building, we were prompted to encase the mass with a modern facade to create a bolder form. A self-supporting metal structure was devised with minimal anchoring on the building within. This in turn enabled the incorporation of a verandah on the upper level.

House of Sweeping Shadows by Abin Design Studio
Development Stages

Designed as a curved, louvered surface, the crafted metal facade casts mesmerising shadows in the interior spaces. There is a soft play of light and shade as the sun moves across the horizon through the day. Rectilinear punctuations along the curve, crafted as this lamina surfaces using sheet metal, strategically open out the spaces to the idyllic views outside.

 

The interiors are treated in simple lines with whitewashed walls and contemporary furniture over a daring red floor. the open louvers allow for the verandah to stay well ventilated while keeping the sharp south-western sunlight at bay by breaking it up into thin tendrils of light. The sunken sit-out is contrastingly rendered in pigmented concrete complemented with views of the pool, verdant plant-beds and the aviary.

The combination of masses of varied scales, bold metal facade with soft verdant landscape, and the dark hues complementing the open skies over the reflective water body make for a serene, modern extension to the client’s residence.

Drawings and Sketches

Model Photographs

Details:

Project Facts:

Project: Sweeping Shadows
Location: Bansberia, West Bengal
Site Area: 9,535 sft
Built-up Area: 1,960 sft
Completion: October, 2018
Architectural Intervention, Interior and Landscape Design: Abin Design Studio
Team: Abin Chaudhuri, Samya Ghatak, Debkishor Das, Debjit Samanta
Photographs by: Abin Chaudhuri, Ravi Kanade, Samya Ghatak

Share your comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent

The case of Phalke Smarak - Nashik

The case of Phalke Smarak

The essay titled, ‘The case of Phalke Smarak : Nashik’s untapped potential with existing urban public space’ – discusses how a promising urban scale public space project for Nashik city in the late 90s has slowly turned desolate, despite all the possibilities and potential the architectural design, site and overall context offers. It further tries to highlight the gap between the public and failed public spaces based on this case, and points towards public engagement for successful urban design, renewal and development. This essay by Asmita Raghuvanshy is amongst the shortlisted essays.

Read More »
The Good, the Bad and the Aesthetic - Bhopal

The Good, the Bad and the Aesthetic

This essay delves into how municipal corporations envision creating Western cities (instead of responding to the Indian context) and end up creating cities that only appear to work, instead of actually being more socially inclusive, dynamic and publicly active. The Smart Cities Mission then caters only to the rich and this becomes evident in not just the visuals they use, but also the manner in which they describe their vision of a World Class Infrastructure. This essay by Avani Mittal is amongst the shortlisted essays.

Read More »
Source: Author

Chabutra As Thresholds To Effective Placemaking

The essay discusses the past, present, and future of the Chabutro’s in Ahmedabad from the author’s perspective based on their time spent there. Chabutro’s serve as markers and play a significant role in placemaking. The essay emphasizes the importance of Chabutro, highlighting the connection it holds for a potential future as a new wayfinding tool. This essay by Prakriti is amongst the shortlisted essays.

Read More »

WE ARE HIRING /

ArchitectureLive! is hiring for various roles, starting from senior editors, content writers, research associates, graphic designer and more..

 

PARTICIPATE /