A house with a small 'COURTYARD'
Clients: My Brother in law and Sister
Four years back (I
don’t remember exactly) my Brother In Law (BIL) Mr. Mohammed Yousuf Sheriff and
my sister Mrs Afeefa wanted me to design their house. Theirs is a family of 6
with three male kids (Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff [15], Mohammed Hannan Sheriff [13]
and Mohammed Hasnain Sheriff [10]) and their senior citizen mother Sayeda
Sheriff (She is also my father’s elder sister). They wanted this house, a kind
of their dream for them to settle down in this house once they return from
Dubai (where he is working at present). I accepted this offer and started on
with designing the same. I am writing this blog just to highlight the design
ideas incorporated and some challenges faced in doing the same.If you are expecting
some fancy/funky concept or design, that’s not going to be the case, explained
here is a simple design and the thought process behind it.
The Basic Requirements:
As usually happens with
most of the clients at the starting of the design phase, there were a lot of
aspirations from my BIL and sister. They had a site of 50’ x 90’ located in a residential area of Thanjavur, with road on
the South Eastern side. They wanted a bungalow type of house with good
landscaping (with utilitarian trees) in front of the building and good big open
spaces internally. Then practicality came in and the approach changed towards
designing a ground floor house with a minimum of five rooms, a kitchen with
store room, a living room, a dining area and utility with toilets wherever
necessary.
The idea of Courtyard:
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| Ground floor Plan |
Almost when the final
planning was done it was decided that we will go for two 2BHK houses on first
floor which will be given for rent. As the ground floor plan was already in place
with the same layout, design for two houses in first floor was done, but due to
cost constraints and other reasons, it was decided only one house in first floor
will be built and the remaining part will be used as terrace to be used later
for a purpose to be decided in future.
The other idea that is
majorly looked into generally in Muslim houses is to have an opportunity to
have areas segregated for men and women. This situation of segregation is not
required on daily basis but whenever there is a function or a gathering of some
friends and relatives, and then there comes the need. The courtyard in between
the Living area and the Dining becomes buffer with living area becoming the
male area and dining acting like the female area.
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| Courtyard view from the central spine Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
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| Courtyard view from side access door Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
Courtyard in Use:
In addition to the
above mentioned usage of courtyard for natural lighting & ventilation and
as a space divider between male and female domain, the major dream for me with
the courtyard was to see how people will be using it. During the designing
phase, I was a little confused on the finish I wanted for courtyard, whether to
finish it with tiles or to leave the ground as it is with some parts dedicated
for landscaping. It was left with normal ground and filled with sand. I was
expecting that to be used by children to play and to my satisfaction that
happened on the day of inauguration of the house itself, when some of the kids
who came enjoyed sitting and playing there. The advantage of having an internal
open space is that the parents can afford to care less as they are in an
controlled environment rather than on road (when usually you allow people to
play in front yard). The kids played in the courtyard during the day and the
factor that let them play during the day time is the proportion of the
courtyard which allows for direct sun to fall on ground only for an hour or so
in the day.
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| Schematic Section through Courtyard |
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| View of Living room with ample natural light Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
Later when my BIL
settles down after retiring he wants to have a garden of his own and I am quite
sure that this courtyard will be the preferred space to do the same. From the
pictures you can actually see some plants already planted and growing.
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| View of Dining with natural light from Courtyard Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
The Central spine:
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| View of Central Spine from entrance sit out Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
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| View from Hall through the central spine Photo Courtesy: Syed Abdaal Paarsa and Mohammed Hamzah Sheriff |
The Internal Connections:
Continuing on the male
areas / female areas dividing concept, a design suggestion by a senior relative
helped in actually accentuating it in a better way. He suggested having an
internal connection between rooms so to allow free movement of the female folks
of the house to easily traverse to all parts of the house without coming in
male vision. As I thought this to be a good idea, connecting doors were
introduced in between the rooms. On the one hand it increased the number of
doors, but it actually helps in acting as a secondary circulation access to the
central spine which is a primary circulation.
Spatial Planning:
As you may see in the
plan the arrangement of different spaces has been kept simple and normal. The
central parts act as public / semi-public areas (Living, Courtyard and Dining).
The rooms are arranged in such a way that Master Bed Room is clubbed adjacent
Kitchen for ease of access, with dining acting as the buffer. The other rooms
are on the opposite side facing the SW side. Though this part may be exposed to
the afternoon sun in general case here the availability of a house on the
nearby plot and good number of trees providing the green cover helps in keeping
this side of the house also comparatively cool (though sometimes it affects the
quality of light inside the rooms also). Toilets placed in the centre for easy
access from different rooms. A toilet placed below the landing will be used by
men during functions which is easily accessible from the side way.
Elevation treatment and form:
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| Front View from SE side |
With respect to
elevation and form of the building I decided to go the simple way. The overall
plan is rectangle with a cut out in the middle, which is the courtyard. With
respect to treating the front elevation, time tested elements of architecture
the lines and planes were used. The provision of sitout area in the front above
which the kitchen of the first floor house is provided acted as an additive
form from the basic rectangular block behind. The projection of the portico
over from the sitout to the main gate of the house acted as horizontal plane.
To provide more emphasis the additive block accommodating sitout and kitchen
was raised in height. This was finished with a small cantilevered plane having
three LED lights to add interest to the elevation during the night. Interest
was created in the plain blunt wall on the SE corner by providing some slit
windows and fin (vertical plane) converting itself into an horizontal plane on
which again LED lights were provided. A three color combination was selected
with darker color for strips and major projections and other two for different
areas. In all I think I achieved a pleasant and balanced Elevation bringing the
house into prominence within the street.
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| Lights on !!! |
Some Challenges:
As most of you know I work
full time in Chennai and don’t travel much to Thanjavur. So the frequent site
visits were not possible, whenever time permitted I did visit though but could
not be regular and that was a major challenge. I would like to thank the contractor
Bala who did his job in bringing out the project almost to the desired level of
completion. Here and there some goof ups were there but did not affect us. On
this front I would thank my dad Mr. Shabbir Ahmed Bijli for being the major
point of contact between us and almost looking after the whole project and
finances. He was ably helped by Mr. Haneef, who also gave some practical
suggestions based on his experience.
Convincing them to go
for an internal open courtyard space was a challenge to some extent, but I managed
to convince most of them. It is sometimes not that easy to convince everyone. I
am saying this because my BILs mother asked on the day of inauguration of the
house, when am I planning to put sheet on top of the courtyard to close it. She
was of the impression that it will be closed at the end. Then I explained it to
her and I think she likes the space as I have not received any complaints after
that.
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| Night view from the other side of road |
All said and done it
was a great experience and I am thankful to my sister and BIL for giving me
this opportunity. I relished designing this house and happy that it has come
out very close to my expectations. This house is not an exorbitant or a
flamboyant design and the idea from day one was to keep it simple and useful. To
some extent I think I have accomplished my notion of keeping it simple yet
useful
Hope you all like
it.!!!!
Thank you !!!!
MUZAKKIR G. M. BIJLI
A r c h i t e c t
MUZAKKIR G. M. BIJLI
A r c h i t e c t
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