The Chalet, Baroda
- Project Title The Chalet
A community of 11, 2/4 BHK, weekend/permanent homes located next to the great river of Mahir n Baroda. The site off the edge of the ravines making the location a special place to get away from te city and immerse oneself in the outdoors.
The architecture comprises a compact footprint with a double-height modern living and dining space overlooking the vast private garden of 4,500 sq. ft.
The architectural language is exciting. It is defined by the contrast between stone rubble masonry and the stark off-white walls. Experientially, the stone wraps around the house from the exterior onto the interior walls, creating a sense of warmth and also drawing a connection between the inside and the outside, both visually and physically.
5 PASSIVE SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES
1. Orientation :
You will notice that all houses have been oriented on the North and South axis to minimize solar heat gain.
2. Daylighting and Shading :
We have designed the homes in a way that it takes advantage of the natural light and reduces the dependency on artificial light. More daylight also means more heat from the sun, and hence we have integrated pergolas and chajjas to reduce the glare from the sun.
3. Vegetation :
You will notice that we have included a terrace garden with additional vegetation integrated with the architecture. Green roofs or terrace gardens can also be used as they help to reduce heat loads in a building. The additional thickness of the growing medium provides extra thermal insulation. These also retain moisture from rainwaterfurther cooling the roof surface.
4. Local Materials :
Acquiring local materials is an important strategy to adopt if we were to be sustainable. And hence, we will be engaging with a local brick kiln, less than 2 kms from the site, to provide top-quality bricks for the houses. We also include locally sourced stone and wood.
5. Rain-Water Harvesting :
Rainwater harvesting is the simple process or technology used to conserve Rainwater by collecting, storing, purifying of Rainwater that runs off from rooftops, parks, roads, open grounds, etc. for later use.