In northwest India, an architectural firm cleaned house on the award circuit with a truly sumptuous family home built to stay naturally cool in 104°F (40°C) heat.
At nearly 10,000 square feet of interior space, the building houses a family of three generations wrapped in natural stone and wood that bend around fluctuating ceiling heights. But the showpiece of the Mirai House of Arches is the “curvilinear punctuated envelope” of terracotta that surrounds the house.
Creating shaded balconies, porticoes, and patios, the envelope takes advantage of sun position, average wind direction, and the excellent thermoregulatory capabilities of the natural materials to keep the house cool during the 8-month Rajasthan summer.
The science lies in the separation of the envelope from the house itself. Even as the rays of the sun heat the envelope, wind and moisture evaporation can make their way into the space between the house and the envelope to reduce the radiative heat that enters the living areas.
“Based on the location, the southern and eastern sides have minimum open space with adjacent villas on those sides to be built in the future,” said Sanjay Puri of Sanjay Puri Architects, the firm that built the house.
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On the northern and western sides, there is a shaded lawn and garden, with a door opening to the living room.
“There is an interesting play of volumes in each part of the house, bedrooms of a single volume, dining area of a double volume, and a living area of an intermediate 1.5 level volume.”
Mirai House of Arches is built in a city called Bhilwara, which has a legendary past, and is today known as the “city of looms.” The dramatic house suits this legendary founding.
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It has won the Architecture Master Prize 2022, the Best Implemented Project of Private Residence 2022 at the Golden Trezzini Awards, and the Best Residential Project in Architecture at the CDA Awards 2022 in Paris.
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