Aadyam House

Case study of a residence by Gaurav Roy Chaudhari Architects

Front elevation of Aadyam House, Source: https://www.grca.co.in/aadyam-bangalore

Sitting in a central locality of Bangalore, Aadyam house is a contemporary and dynamic masterpiece by Gaurav Roy Chaudhari Architects.

Aadyam house is a hybrid, modern-yet-traditional space that combines the owner's ideas with the designer's talents. The house is crafted for a young couple with elderly parents. The couple's active and dynamic way of life needed to be accommodated in the home, while also making it convenient, cozy, and traditional for the husband's parents. Aadyam house, which straddles modernity and tradition, is both the owner's and the designer's pride and joy.

Collaboration of contemporary and traditional

As part of the design process of the house, the client's requirements were the focus. One was retaining the existing structure and the second was following Vastu principles. The ground floor is a traditional house space, allowing elderly parents to access every part of it. An upper floor hybrid space serves as a library, AV room, lounge area, and second living space for the couple.

Section showing ground and first floor

Ground & Upper floor

The front elevation of the house is a combination of a bedroom and a living area. Approaching the entrance, one passes through the narrow-elevated garden. It creates a buffer between the bedroom elevation and the road outside. The entrance divides the house right in the middle. It forms a cozy nook, framed by a floating temple volume on one side and a garden on the other. As you enter, one is greeted by a lavish living room that extends into a dining area. The dining is enveloped in a corner glass /window which illuminates the space with warm north light.

Glass compliments the material palette of the house as it engages the interiors with the outside green. The house's core, an elevated garden, serves as its source of ventilation and natural light. The garden's greens grow upwards into the upper floor and become a uniting factor between the two different levels. The northside garden of the home frames a view of the dining area and the kitchen.

Kitchen and North side Garden, Elevated Garden

In the single height volume of the house, the kitchen is connected to the powder room, the helper's room, and the parents' bathroom, above which a mezzanine hybrid space resides. The first floor wraps itself around the elevated garden in a U shape. It holds two bedrooms on either side with a hybrid space in the middle. Light filters through the sloping roof that encloses this volume.

The master bedroom towards the front side has a cut-out for a tree that separates the sleeping and service areas of the bedroom and imitates the idea of a private courtyard. Bay windows in the master bedroom and the guest room open up to the elevated greens through glass encasings. The primary hybrid volume interacts with the garden through a corridor with a glass door on one side and a staircase on the other.

Master bedroom with bay window

The language of steel and glass is the primary storyteller of the interiors. The steel space frame that encloses the staircase establishes the house's rhythm. The layers of space frame juxtapose each other and are used as display, seatings, shelves, and steps which in turn generates many silhouettes. The staircase is a subtle transition as one moves from a calm, mellow ground floor to a busy energetic upper floor. Glass plays the perfect partner and enhances the liveliness of the space by allowing ample penetration of light.

Staircase & Steel space frame

Silhouettes in the house continue to move as the day sets into the night, standing testimony to the transformation. Aadyam house is a paradox that unites and divides the spaces at the same time. It is a true reflection of a self-indulging yet contemplative painting in a material form.

Elevation of Aadyam House