The Vista is a farmhouse envisioned to capture two major vistas from one central space, contemplating and lingering in nature, surrounded by beautiful vast green pastures and mountains, alongside a dam in the city of Nashik.
Our clients are three brothers, who came with a desire to build a weekend house for their families to come together, away from populated city life to find solitude. The two-acre rectangular site has a sloping plot accessed at the highest contour from the east side; on the west lie the farmlands while the backwaters range from South-East to South-West. The brief was to have four bedrooms connected to common spaces like living, dining and a pantry overlooking backwaters and farms.
To inhabit, we started with a generic idea of having a ‘shed’ in farmland which suffices the need for relaxed living. The highest contour on the east side gives a perfect location to capture the vistas. On this contour is a tree, alongside which we placed an elevated horizontal plane to create that shed, giving a better view from the top. Introducing a plane gave it the autonomy to witness the vistas and yet, have a space to rest under the sky.
We believed even a generic idea like shed can be perfectly manifested by sensitively responding to context. Further to stay on this contour, the idea was to hide the adjacent structures on either side so they would not invade privacy and block the view. Retaining the horizontal plane we introduced two built masses on the south and north respectively forming semi-open spaces in between. The composition of two built blocks connected with two horizontal planes shaped the idea of a shed as a family space and built blocks as secured private spaces.
Here the notion of habitable space is challenged. The arrival of the house becomes a ‘Gateway to nature’ framing the farms and mountains. To accentuate this, a stepped pavilion with natural yellowish Shahabad stone is carefully crafted on slopes below the shed, one can freely relax and be in nature, without entering the house. The upper level with a low floor height captures the panoramic view of the dam and mountains and becomes the core of the house with living and dining.
A very strong form of two rectangular blocks connected by two horizontal planes is shaped and elaborated by using red bricks. These bricks are well designed to become perforated in some places ventilating the staircase and toilets. Just like an apple which changes the colour and texture from outside to inside the blocks are transformed from red outside to white inside; detailed with marble on the edges at the openings.
The space crafted between the built, allows the wind to flow, birds to sing and people to gather under shade. Thus the built is carefully placed to ‘celebrate the unbuilt’.
Images
Project Facts
Project Name: The Vista
Office Name: pk_iNCEPTiON
Completion Year: 2019
Gross Built Area: 290 sq.m
Project Location: Gangapur Dam, Nashik
Program: Weekend House
Lead Architects: Ar. Pooja Khairnar
Photo Credits: Hemant Patil
