The Mogra Collective House – The Black Sheep Farm

Description - Residential
Status – On going
Area – 3500 sqft
Scope –Architecture + Interior
Location – Bangalore

Living and working in the same place can turn out to be fruitful and efficient in metro cities. Similarly, The Mogra Collective House is a small-scale row house designed to function as an office and residence jointly. Designed for a dynamic couple heading a wedding planner studio, the residence is located in a busy residential neighbourhood of Jayanagar in Bangalore. The design brief presented the need to showcase the couple’s penchant for design and aesthetics to present a glimpse of their skills to the prospective clients. Getting an insight on the client and their way of life, the house is conceptualised as a hybrid mix of age-old Bangalore charm with a contemporary design vision. The couple wished for a multifunctional house with their office on the ground floor and residence on the top floors. The versatile office space is envisaged as a seamless unit to function as an office during the day, and blossom into a lounge or community space for gatherings and socializing after sunset.

Enveloped by commercial housing properties, the street is crowded with hawkers and cars. In consequence, a high black granite compound wall is built at the site entrance to block outside commotion. The threshold of the house is marked by a double heighted pivot door. On arrival, a small double height lobby sheltered under earthen pot filler slab welcomes the customers. The ground floor is covered by the office space, with two floors of bedrooms and the top floor as the living area flanked by plants and creepers to define the space. The house supports a mangalore tile sloping roof with a wooden underside to increase room height.

The challenges of a narrow site measuring 4.3m by 21m were typical to that of a row-house. Sharing the longer walls with adjacent properties on both ends, the openings can only be provided on the shorter sides of the plot. Balancing light and ventilation in compliance to the site conditions, a courtyard is introduced to play around with light and ventilation. The courtyard accommodates a folded staircase, lily pond and also divides the house in two portions, the larger area to be used as living areas and the smaller one for supporting services like toilets and kitchen. As a result of skewed spatial proportions, the placement of the connecting bridge alternates on the upper floors to render an impression of double height volumes and filter in sunlight. The courtyard is enclosed by an elevated sloping glass roof with louvered sides to allow ample sunlight and assist in relieving hot air. In response to peak afternoons, the house can be insulated by use of a collapsible fabric roof curtain.

The horizontal retail base shoulders five vertical apartment blocks, encased by two main roads. A separate residential entry planned through the third adjacent road maintains its privacy. Positioned in Cuttack Zone 3, the construction of floating columns or transfer beams is restricted, making the structure challenging. The building is designed to place each individual residential block on the retail column grid to optimize space. Built on the principles of vaastu, each apartment is planned to open from all three sides and divided by vertical louvers and balconies. The internal facade is abstractly fabricated by creating a rhythm of punctures in the solid mass, further accentuated by floating cubes on the balcony railing. Expansive balconies on the flood plain facing facade interrupts its verticality with horizontal slabs. The facades are constructed using terracotta brick cladding with concrete texture paint to give an earthy touch. The use of wooden panels and louvers emphasises the rugged earthy aesthetics.

The facade to this narrow structure with four storeys serves as an extensive canvas. Double height arched windows with a black metal encasement splits the facade into two. The windows are screened with a white louvered wooden shutter adding to the old-world charm and applied as a sunshade and security feature. The proportions are further rectified by projecting balconies with metal railing and vertical support detail replicating Victorian aesthetics with a slimline contemporary twist. The use of plants further adds charm and softens the rugged stone clad facade.

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