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The Grid Architects erect sweeping concrete volumes with Pixel House in India

The Ahmedabad-based firm sculpts stacked volumes, sheltered balconies and internal gardens for this house designed for a family of three generations in India.

by Zohra KhanPublished on : Jun 10, 2020

A two-storey house for a family of three generations by The Grid Architects, an Ahmedabad-based firm, comprises stacked volumes and internal gardens. The project referred as The Pixel House draws from the idea of the most fundamental element of digital imagery, i.e. pixel that replicates as recurring inside-out spaces rooted in nature.

A view of the Pixel House | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
A view of the Pixel House Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

The brief outlined the project to be designed for three couples and two children. Architect Snehal Suthar and Bhadri Suthar conceived a layout that allowed every space with enough room to ensure both connectedness and seclusion.

A series of overlapping planes gave form to small semi-open meeting spaces and internal gardens interspersed within the indoors. This way the landscape becomes a part of the internal programmes and makes the house a green sanctuary.

Entrance to the house | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
Entrance to the house Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

"The architectural form explores the idea of sheltered balconies, overhangs and spaces-under-spaces in a bid to allow each room to face the front (north) garden, as a response to the region’s hot, dry climate. The result is a structure that is gently extroverted yet retains enough privacy,” explain the architects.

Semi open court connected to the living room | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
Semi open court connected to the living room Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

One arrives at the entrance by crossing a stone pavement laid adjacent to an outdoor garden. The gate to the house is sheltered by a sculpturesque concrete canopy that imparts ‘a certain sense of arrival’; its surface with square perforations of varying sizes reveal a wonderful play of light and shadow during the day, while large MS lamps suspended down the roof project ambient reflections in the night.

Pixel House | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
Living area Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

Inside, a gracious lobby leads one to the living area, which spills into a dining connected to shaded court, a kitchen and two bedrooms. A key space is a staircase block that sits at the centre of the ground floor against a brick clad wall and topped by a skylight.

  • Pixel House | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    Staircase block Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India
  • A brick facade forming the background and a skylight crowning the staircase | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    A brick facade forming the background and a skylight crowning the staircase Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

"The stepped form of the architectural envelope gets mirrored here in a miniature fashion, as a series of stepped planters that lend a sense of security to the railing-less staircase,” add Snehal and Bhadri.

"The greenery makes the upward journey a pleasant one, as the overlapping plants invite you to touch them, creating a pleasurable sensation of walking in a garden.”

  • Bedroom connected with the outdoor garden | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    Bedroom connected with the outdoor gardenImage Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India
  • Toilet connected to a small courtyard | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    Toilet connected to a small courtyard Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

The upper floors are completely residential and are dedicated to three bedroom and an open terrace.

To manifest the ‘geometricity’ of the volumes, the architects have used stone, wood, exposed brick and traditional lime plaster in conjunction with contemporary furnishing within the interiors. On the exteriors, exposed RCC and stone envelopes the house.

Perforations on the entrance canopy | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
Perforations on the entrance canopy Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographix India

The Pixel House inspires with its intersecting layers of spaces that ensure no one at home feels alienated as well as its simple palette suggests that the building is a product of the site itself.

  • Ground floor plan | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    Ground floor plan Image Credit: Courtesy of The Grid Architects
  • First floor plan | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    First floor plan Image Credit: Courtesy of The Grid Architects
  • Elevation | The Grid Architects | Ahmedabad, India | STIRworld
    Elevation Image Credit: Courtesy of The Grid Architects

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