Srijit Srinivas Architects

Narrow Brick House

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

NARROW BRICK HOUSE

Srijit Srinivas - ARCHITECTS

LOCATION
India

AREA
117 m²

CATEGORY
Houses

MANUFACTURERS
Electrodynamic, Geosam, Greenlam, Hybec, Prisha, Trojan, cera

PHOTOGRAPHS
Justin Sebastian

YEAR
2022

LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR
Jacob Klavara

CLIENTS
Mr. Roopesh Ramesh & Mrs. Meera R.

DESIGN TEAM
Remya Raveendran, Sriya S., Deepika S.

CIVIL CONTRACTOR
Judeson Antony

TEXT
J. George

LEAD ARCHITECT
Srijit Srinivas

Text description provided by architect.

The Clients (a couple working as IT engineers) presented an extremely narrow site in Thiruvanthapuram as part of their design brief.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

The inherent challenge was in accommodating a generous 117 sq.m. of built-up area on the elongated 283 sq.m. site, which upon excluding mandatory setbacks on the sides, elicits just 4.8 m (or a mere room-width) of working clearance.

The resultant design solution delivered living, dining, and kitchen areas on the Ground Floor along with an ensuite bedroom.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

The First Floor accommodated the ensuite master bedroom with a balcony and a walk-in wardrobe, a living room for the Client to conduct mridangam (percussion instrument) classes, as well as an additional ensuite bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe, which could also alternatively function as a Study.

A full-sized car porch was not achievable given the paucity of plot space, but alternatively, a partially covered nook was devised affording all-weather access from the car to the front door.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

Despite the narrowness of the building envelope, the interior spaces did not compromise on the ingress and movement of light and air circulation.

The design also took advantage of the longitudinal slope of the site via a stepped-down floor plate following the natural contours of the land, and in the process optimized foundation costs.

On entering the house, one is welcome by an internal courtyard whose verdant green foliage is bathed with natural light from the overhead skylight feature.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

This miniature ‘oasis’ provide the emotive focus, visually connecting the living room and dining space on either side.

The minimalistic staircase in exposed concrete wraps around the green space leading upwards, whilst also providing visual interest via its restrained contrasting of recesses and quiet protuberances.

The kitchen is located towards the rear of the site and sited at a lower level.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

The careful use of vertically expanded internal volumes where possible, and of a mutually inter-flowing functional triad of spaces such as the living, dining, and kitchen (and tied together vertically by the concrete stairwell) successfully negates any perception of the volumetric constrictions from the narrow building and site envelopes.

The double-height configuration of the dining room connects with the upper floor plan and accentuates the overall visual experience of the building.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

The light-touch minimalist approach also finds expression in the various interior design elements like wardrobes, shelving, fenestrations, etc.– all pared back to the bare minimum required.

The bedrooms- through with careful space planning, though small have space for sleeping as well as an integrated study area and walk-in wardrobes.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

The upper floor living room with its roof-mounted skylight endows the space with a warm character to complement its intended use as an informal mridangam training space.

The upper floor master bedroom opens out to a balcony with louvers providing privacy and cool breezes, and an invigorating interplay of light and shadows across the day.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian

This house showcases the power of purposeful spatial design and planning to deliver deft functionality and charm, even inappreciably constrained plots.

Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian
Narrow Brick House
© Justin Sebastian


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Srijit Srinivas Architects
T +91 9447092404
Srijit Srinivas Architects
1, Belhaven Road, Kanaka Nagar, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695003, India