Farm house at Nadhawade

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

The farm was bought with the idea of creating an ecologically balanced environment with maximum use and recycling of local materials. The house has an organic quality with a unified interior space instead of segregated, isolated rooms. Every requirement was worked out as activities and not as rooms. The house was designed to grow around the trees, and integrate them in the built environment. The inside and outside spaces mingle with each other.

Some times the garden comes inside, or the house extends out in low-built forms into the garden.

The use of locally available laterite stones wood, mud and cow dung besides bringing about economy, lend an unusual warmth and earthiness to the spaces.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

This land was bought with following ideas in mind:

- To create a wholistic environment through the understanding of various interrelationships that form an integral part of one's life.

- To extend the limited scope of architecture (as is generally understood and practiced today) to the spheres of total human environmental design - where Landscape architecture, Interiors, Construction methodologies, Horticulture, Energy, Water, Soil, Animal, Insect world, Food etc. are included to interact and evolve design decisions.

- To create maximum self-sufficiency through a balanced nature + man made ecosystem. Also work out maximum recycling of the natural resources - bio chemical energies.

- To obtain maximum of well being with the minimum of the consumption, maximum human satisfaction by the optimal pattern of consumption, as consumption is merely a means to human well being. This is by the optimal pattern of productive effort.

- To study the multiple and simultaneous uses of a resource (physical and mental) in various fields by causing it's minimum destruction.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

- To be in a spiritually symbiotic relationship with one's surroundings that of love and compassion.

- To have less and less water tight compartments for highly specialized functions but to live an integrated and wholistic life were spaces and resources would be more and more flexible, multipurpose, and with maximum utilization factor.

- To experiment in the vernacular design and building technology and native materials.

- To rethink and evaluate at the most basic fundamental level all human activities and values (as practiced today).

- To study ways of energy transfer and energy sublimation.

- Exploring various physical levels of utilization of space and time - to achieve maximum utilization and production.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

Our own house, farm aid's quarters, garden, well, pool and services structure have been located centrally under and around large existing trees to facilitate better supervision, better insulation, shade and beauty.

The house was designed to grow around the trees, and integrate them in the built environment. The inside and outside spaces mingle into each. Sometimes, the garden comes inside or the house extends out in low built forms into the garden.

The house was constructed in laterite stone masonry (a locally available porous stone of 26cm X 40cm X 16cm ht.) This material can be dressed to any size and shape, has good insulation value and brings about a great saving in cement mortar. These stones have also been used as flat arches over the windows, as windows slits, as carved niches in walls, as prefab steps, lintels, flower bed, retainers and so on...

The foundation is in Deccan trap stone obtained while digging the swimming pool. The sand was gathered from the streambed, which runs along the property.

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