KASPER MEADOWS

Location:Umeta, Vadodara
Plot Area:5400 SQ.FT
Built-up Area:2363 SQ.FT
Programme:Housing
Status:Completed
Completion Year:2022
Photographer:Tejas Shah

Second home is more like the houses we see in movies or we read about in a book. Away from the chaos of the city, surrounded by lush green farmlands, pleasant sounds of birds chirping and engaging fragrances of flowers. The client and his brother wanted something which perfectly fits the description. To escape the urban life and enjoy the calm serene life close to nature, they bought two adjoining houses set on a plot of 5400 square feet each. These are situated in the outskirts of Vadodara city in a gated community of weekend homes designed by us.
The design philosophy of the weekend home community is not highlighting but rather blending in the built mass with the surrounding greens. To achieve this, the height of the villas is kept low and sloping roof is added. By these simple measures the houses flow into nature and merges with it's surroundings. Various villas are placed one after the other in a circumferential pattern with the club, pool and community garden in the centre, followed by the pathways, the villas and lastly the green farmlands behind them creating a panorama of concentric views. The material palette is kept local with stone walls and clay roofing tiles. In ideation of the design philosophy, an individual villa is kept minimal, with large openings maintaining the importance of the context rather than creating enchanting elements within.
Taking the focus back to our client’s house, their only requirement was a common interacting space for both the brother’s families to come out and spend time together in addition to the simple three-bedroom house very different from first home.
We started with exploring options for the flooring. The guiding lines for us were the words ‘not like first home’. In sync with the design philosophy of the villas, we came up with a very natural material Red Lakha Stone. It is a very bold flooring material which one thinks twice before using in their first home. Within minutes we were sure that this is what was going to be the driving concept for the house. We then designed very unconventional solid wood furniture to compliment the overall language and finally added very raw uncustomary artifacts to finish our story.
The house has the living, dining, kitchen and the master bedroom on the ground floor, each opening onto the stone verandah covered with sloping roof above and the view of the garden in front. We have created a central sunken courtyard finished in highlighting red lakha stone between the two houses. This is the heart of both the houses where the families come out, sit, sing, dance, bon fire, most importantly spend time together.
The choice of materials which we have used, the typology of furniture, the artifacts, the spill-over spaces created, the landscape which we have designed and the views which we have chosen to frame are all very divergent from those of first home. The natural and experiential feel which we have achieved is what makes this a home different than first home, a second home.