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Lovely Live-Work in India is Easy on the Climate

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This live-work home is designed by and for the DADA Partners is both home and work space.

Designed around a courtyard, the house has formal living spaces in front and private areas at the back. The work area is sunk below ground to maximize cooling during the hottest part of the day while the two architects are at work.

In Indian architectural tradition, the courtyard (the Brahmasthana or sacred center) is a standard design feature; serving as both a social gathering space and a climate modifier.

And in this case too the courtyard is part of the green strategies the architects employed to make the house sustainable.

The architectural design itself facilitates natural breezes generated by the layout of open spaces interspersed with walls, resulting in cooler places throughout the house.

This three-storey high stair zone feels as if it is hung in middle of this lofty volume filled with light in the center of the space. It acts to cool the house as it naturally brings cool air up from the lower level. Since the  space is half sunk below ground, it requires virtually no heating in winter and very little air conditioning in summer.

South facing solar collectors on the roof heat water for showers, reducing energy costs significantly.

Also, the generous window openings allow abundant natural light inside the spaces reducing the use of artificial light sources during the day.

And since the house operates as a live-work unit from the lower ground floor, where the architects spend the hottest part of the workday in the cool below-ground office, they have succeeded in designing a house that also reduces the family carbon footprint by eliminating car travel to work.