Retreat of Hanging Garden at Pohegaon, in Ahmednagar, by Atelier Shantanu Autade

Shantanu Autade
Retreat of Hanging Garden at Pohegaon in Ahmednagar, by Atelier Shantanu Autade, is rendered to derive a unique identity for the dwelling and is to be associated with multiple activities like storing, packing and selling goods cultivated in farmland, cooking facilities and providing temporary shelter for labourers working in farms was a needful service. 
ELEVATION

The site is located at Pohegaon in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. The client approached us to design a shelter where one could have food and rest for a while.  The evolution of this design started with understanding and evaluating various contemporary ideas for dwellings with multiple activities in the region. As this shelter is rendered to derive a unique identity for the dwelling and is to be associated with multiple activities like storing, packing and selling goods cultivated in farmland, cooking facilities and providing temporary shelter for labourers working in farms was a needful service. 

In the beginning, a survey was conducted to study the house forms of the region. This resulted in us understanding the evolution of house form from the Dhaba (mud slab) house, with a verandah, to the present-day gated bungalows (exclusive artefacts) and low-cost shelter typology, built in concrete and tin roof. This survey of existing houses and their technology of construction led to using thin concrete walls with metal pre-fab skeletons, lined with the galvanized roof.

The shelters, currently, consist of a dwelling (to stay) with semi-open space attached to it. But there is no connection between the two spac­es. This resulted in disintegration, in terms of activities in these houses.

The whole process of design started with the question- What should be the nature of design assembly, which will accommodate a temporal character and will occupy various numbers of people?

In search of a typological prototype, the key elements of buildings like a base (platform), skeleton (metal framework), roof (corrugated GI sheet) and skin (concrete envelope) are generic materials, which formed, in a way a design tool and design regulatory principle. While executing the idea of dwelling for tomorrow, the envelope is separated from the skin, which has created a gap to form visual and physical connections with the surrounding. The security is taken care of by the perforated gate, which allows an uninterrupted visual connection. A utility and cooking space is accommodated in the centre of the shelter, which separates the living and resting areas- where the living space functions as a multiple use space, dynamic in nature with the activities. It further extends to the court formed by the separation of the concrete envelope. While in the resting area, the court functions as a connector between the resting space and the washroom.

This place is influenced by old regional typologies proposed on land parcels, availed by the demise of trees. Manifestation began with the proposed block, which houses two spaces- living and resting, which extends in court with a concrete envelope around and a pantry in the centre.

The design evolved contains a narrow linear space, where a verandah wraps around the living block, which connects farms on both sides. This forms an identity of assembly of house form, termed as the ‘living –verandah’.

Project Facts

Architects: Assembly and Rural House Form/ Atelier Shantanu Autade
Location: Pohegaon, Maharashtra, India
Program (Use): Farmer’s Shelter
Site area: 16,187 sqm
Building area: 35 sqm
Building scope: 1 floor
Completion: 2018
Principal architect: Shantanu Autade
Project architect: Shantanu Autade
Design team: Rajeshwar Singh, Shivani Prasad, Maitreyi Joshi, Priyanka Kale
Construction: 2018
Completion: 2018
Photographer: Rajeshwar Singh, Tanishq Ostwal

More Unbuilt Ideas