Celebrating Navovado, our design-build vacation house in the Goan countryside through a gallery of photographs of the courtyard house. Earlier this year, Navovado won the prestigious Platinum Certification from the Indian Green Building Council. Navovado harvests all of its roof rainwater and recharges the water well on site. The use of low-flow water fixtures further improves water efficiency. Focus on use of insulation on the roof, double-glazed glass, low­energy use appliances, LED lighting and 100% hot water from Solar power makes this home extremely energy efficient. The structure is constructed using locally manufactured materials and materials with a high recycled content such as Laterite stone, Matti wood, Fly-ash brick and Slag cement. The garden is planted using native local species to reduce water use for ir­rigation. Finally, large openings allow for maximum daylighting and cross-ventilation, reducing the energy use for lighting and cooling.

The heart of the home lies in the large central courtyard that is an extension of the kitchen, living and dining space. The courtyard houses the swimming pool and provides a green private space to be enjoyed by all the residents of the house. The courtyard morphs in its use depending on the time of day and occasion. The guest bedrooms on the ground floor are designed as pavilions on either side of the courtyard, while the first-floor bedrooms have a large terrace overlooking the courtyard that connects the two levels.

Find Navovado featured in detail on our Instagram page here.

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Geoffrey Bawa is an unforgettable and continuous inspiration to most architects. There is an intangible relationship with nature that is so beautifully established. To see our inspiration translate into our work - in design, in spatial character, in connection and reverence towards nature - finding new meaning in every site we build on, feels wonderful and magical.

As we look back on our projects, it feels great to see many of our spaces carrying the sensibilities and sensitivites that Bawa inspired throughout his practice. The following set of images puts our project photos alongside some expertly crafted spaces byt the tropical wizard. It is our ode to the master architect, a reflection of the small but diverse ways in which he has touched our design thinking and building values.

The Balcao Connection

The interesting architectural connection between Goa and Sri Lanka is visibly articulated in elements such as inbuilt seats. The first picture is a site picture of a porch at our project, The House With Three Pavilions. The Goan Balcaos face each other, framing the entrance to the home pavilion. The second photograph is from Bawa's Lunuganga garden, with the in built seats looking out into the surrounding greenscape.

Windows for trees.

There is always time to frame a view. Vistas of green, however small bring a sense of freshness and colour into any space. The first picture is from our project Navovado, as the building volume is punctuated by foliage and fenestration. The second photograph is from Bawa's Garden, the bark of a tree framed through the small verandah window.

Seats built in to live with nature⠀

The first picture is of an insitu seat built next to the champa tree, watching the coconut plantations beyond on site at The House With Three Pavilions. The second photograph is from Bawa's estate, with an in built seat, finished with a wooden railing back, set in the enclosed gazebo to immerse oneself into the sights and sounds of nature around.⠀

A Hidden Pool⠀

The first picture is of a terrace pool overlooking the trees and the hills at our project Nivim. The second photograph is from Geoffrey Bawa's House for Dr Bartholomeusz, with the pool quietly tucked into the indoor-outdoor courtyard.

Finding Bawa ~ The Stairway Composition⠀
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The first two pictures are from our project Navovado, looking at the stairway as it adds sculptural value and the play of different levels to one end of the living room. The second photograph is from Bawa's Bentota house, looking at his minimal, yet artistic stairway composition.⠀

Read Part I of Finding Bawa here.

Geoffrey Bawa is an unforgettable and continuous inspiration to most architects. There is an intangible relationship with nature that is so beautifully established. To see our inspiration translate into our work - in design, in spatial character, in connection and reverence towards nature - finding new meaning in every site we build on, feels wonderful and magical.

As we look back on our projects, it feels great to see many of our spaces carrying the sensibilities and sensitivites that Bawa inspired throughout his practice. The following set of images puts our project photos alongside some expertly crafted spaces by the tropical wizard. It is our ode to the master architect, a reflection of the small but diverse ways in which he has touched our design thinking and building values.

Building with nature

Watching these two pictures side by side leaves us with a sense of achievement and happiness. The first picture is from our project, The House with Three Pavilions in Goa. The second picture is from Ena De Silva's house, built by the master Geoffrey Bawa.

Verandahs celebrating the trees of the land
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The first picture is from our project Navovado, looking at the old mango tree preserved during construction on site for this vacation house in Goa. The second photograph is from Bawa's Lunuganga estate, framing the magnificent tree by the lake.⠀⠀

Making greenery part of the building elevation
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The first picture is from our project Navovado, as boundaries are blurred between the house and its landscape. The second photograph is from Bawa's Lunuganga country estate, picturing the house among the greenery perceived from the lawn.

A Place in The Shade⠀
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The first picture is from our project The House With Three Pavilions, as the semi open corridor faces the internal courtyard on one side, touching it with an in situ seat and transitioning into different rooms on the other sides, each celebrating different views. The second photograph is from Bawa's estate, as the corridor behaves like a verandah even as it connects the indoor spaces from side to side. ⠀

A Welcoming Wilderness⠀
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The first picture frames the entrance to a pavilion at The House With Three Pavilions, brought alive with the growth of native plant species. The second photograph is from Bawa's Lunuganga garden, with the entrance pathway bordered by the lush wildscape on one side. ⠀

Read Part II of Finding Bawa here.

Geoffrey Bawa is an unforgettable and continuous inspiration. With every project we embark on, we see our inspiration translate into our work - in design, in spatial character, in connection and reverence towards nature - finding new meaning in every site we build on. Finding Bawa is a gallery we have compiled as an ode to the master architect. As we reflect on our projects, it feels great to see many of our spaces carrying the sensibilities and sensitivites that Bawa inspired throughout his practice.

Geoffrey Bawa was one of the original proponents of Tropical Modernism, a design movement in which sensitivity for local context combines with the form-making principles of modernism. His architecture led to the formation of a new architectural identity and aesthetic, redefining what it meant to be modern, celebrating a close connection with one’s built and natural environments.

In 1960, Bawa was commissioned to design the house for artist Ena De Silva. Set in Colombo, the plot was very much enmeshed in the busy urban fabric with the activity and movement of any capital city.

Bawa’s first response was to turn the house in on itself and resurrect the courtyard. The house was conceived as a series of pavilions and verandas contained within a high surrounding boundary wall. A major central courtyard led forward to five smaller satellite courtyards. Light and air poured into every room, with notions of inside and outside blurred nearly beyond distinction.

Its spatial qualities were enhanced by the choice of materials: walls of plastered brick, roofs of half-round Portuguese tiles, columns of satin wood, windows of timber lattice, floors of rough granite- materials that were used in ancient Sri Lankan mansions, but brought together in the contemporary open plan format, assembled in an entirely different manner.

After nearly 40 years of living here, Ena was finally forced to sell the house owing to health concerns and mounting bills. Her land in central Colombo was immensely valuable and was quickly snapped up by an adjoining hospital. But the idea of demolition was met by public outcry that made Urban Development Authority insist that the house must be preserved in its entirety.

This is when the Bawa Trust proposed an unusual solution - to move the house in order to reconstruct it. A team of architects, archaeologists and development contractors came together, led by conservation specialist Nilan Cooray. Everything that could be salvaged from Ena de Silva’s home, including the doors and windows, was carefully collected, stored, and moved.

Unlike examples from Japan and Norway, where timber structures had been relocated successfully, Cooray had to work with masonry, some of which was falling apart. The house was stripped down to its bones - every pebble in the courtyard was numbered, every shape was traced, before he was done. They paid particular attention to replicating the structure’s orientation to the Sun, because that was essential to Bawa’s original palette of light and shadow. Working from the roof down, they dismantled the house, which was boxed up and loaded on to lorries to be carted off to a plot next door to Lunuganga, Bawa’s beautiful garden home.

The process took six years from start to finish, and the Ena De Silva house was finally assembled to completion in its new home in 2016.

Relying on black and white photos and surviving furniture, the Bawa Trust intends to return Ena’s house to a spitting image of how she had kept it, even replanting the garden with her choice of plants. It takes the spirit and act of conservation to uncharted territory, preserving Bawa’s legacy for generations to come.

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Outdoor space at Villa Aashyana in Candolim in Goa

Last week began as an exciting week. We issued the landscaping drawings and began work outside. Miraculously this year the monsoons have pretty much subsided by the beginning of August. Even though this means that the temperature is rising (and I never want to say goodbye to the lovely monsoons), this is good news for our construction crew who can now work outdoors.

This week, we built the verandahs that wrap around the bedrooms and designated courtyard spaces for the bathrooms. As I have mentioned before, in our design concept, we have designed each bedroom to be like an individual pavilion that sits within its own series of open spaces. The ground floor bedrooms are wrapped around by covered verandahs. These verandahs are designed to be an intermediate layer that connects the indoors with the outdoors. The covered verandahs and balconies are designed to be the extend the bedrooms outdoors.

For our project, the outdoors are as important as the indoors.

The core design concept is to design a house that allows one to ‘reconnect with nature’. In response, all our indoor spaces are designed to have a progression of open spaces that maximize interaction between the indoor and outdoor. First, each indoor space is designed with two out of four walls that completely open to the outdoors. These openings then connect the indoor spaces with the covered outdoor vernadahs and balconies. These intermediate spaces then connect to the central deck space and surrounding gardens. The garden spaces are significant as this house sits on a large 1000 sq.m. land parcel. In our design, we have tried to minimize hard space. Over 40% of the site has been preserved as natural landscape. This does not include the driveway, parking and parts of the deck that have been designed with permeable paving.

(On a side note, permeable paving allows rainwater to percolate back into earth. Hard paving creates non-permeable surfaces that increases the storm water run-off from land, which in turn reduces percolation back into earth thus reducing the recharge of underground aquifers and potentially overloading the storm water run-off drainage system in the area)

Sketch showing the west-side bedroom designed like a pavilion with two walls out of four being large openable wood and glass doors.

View from the inside of ground floor east-side bedroom to the outside minus the pile of debris. The two openings will have sliding wood and glass panels that leads to a wrap around covered verandah

According to Geoffery Bawa, ‘life in the tropics is about living outdoors’. Along with the living spaces in the house, the bathrooms are also designed to connect seamlessly with the outdoors. One full wall in each bathroom is designed to be built with openable glass. This transparent glass wall and opening will lead each bathroom to a dedicated courtyard space. The courtyard spaces are designed to be more than just little outdoor showers tucked away in the backyard. The bathroom courtyards are carefully designed around existing trees. They are spacious garden spaces that are designed to be private escapes possibly with relaxing arm chairs, day beds, maybe a hammock, a bird bath or two and of course the outdoor shower and bath..

This space will be the master bathroom with a picture window above the wash basin counter and a terrace with a built-in outdoor bath-tub.

The reason for this mad chase behind the indoor-outdoor space concept lies in the fact that we are building in Goa. It is common sense that building construction in Goa should be different from building in urban cities in India or coastal areas around the world. Reconnecting with nature is central to one’s choice to live in Goa and it is a luxury few can afford. This makes it essential to pay special emphasis to the relationship between the indoor-outdoor while building that dream country home in the beautiful tropical paradise of Goa.

This is a difficult post to write because I can go on and on about all the things that we are trying to achieve with the design of this house. But I will try my best to be concise yet comprehensive.

The core principle behind the design concept and decisions is ‘to be true to the place where we are building’. We asked ourselves this question: Why would a person choose to live in Goa (part-time or full-time)? We realized the underlying theme is because Goa allows a person to reconnect with nature. This aspect has since been central to our design concept.

In our proposed building design we have tried to minimise barriers between the built structure and nature. Each room has been designed such that it has an internal space (bedroom, living room, bathroom) and an external space (verandah, courtyard, balcony) that meets with the larger green open spaces on-site. Many walls dividing these internal and external spaces are designed to fold or slide to create a barrier free integration of inside and outside.

House in the Jungle in Brazil

The architectural style would probably be called ‘Tropical Contemporary’. It suggests a contemporary open plan layout where there is seamless interaction between the inside and outside. In addition, there is a focus on the use of local natural materials while integrating contemporary technology and design.

Furthermore, we realised that we must make every effort to preserve our reason for coming to Goa. Hence, we have resolved to try to keep our immediate site surroundings and Goa green, idyllic and free from the added pressures of development. How we do that is to commit to building a green building, by using local materials, reusing and recycling building material whenever possible, reducing waste, minimising energy use, storing and reusing rainwater, 

cleaning our grey water on-site and reducing the storm water runoff from our site.

We aim for our project to be responsive and responsible. 

My inspirations have been:

Architecture practice in Auroville where architects question all standard norms of construction to build in the most innovative and sustainable manner. I spent close to 4 months in Auroville while working at the Auroville Building Center as part of my architectural professional training in the year 2000. I remember attending a party at architect Anupama Kundoo’s house. I was blown away by how her house could completely open out to be a part of its landscape but at the same time she could easily close it up if she was heading out of town. It was the first place where I saw an open air shower bath and then a plunge pool on the terrace. Breeze blew through the entire house and one did not need even a fan on the warmest day or night. I loved the freedom and luxury it represented where one could sit, sleep, and bathe everything while enjoying an uninterrupted connection to nature. This was a truly unique experience for an urbanite; there were no neighbours, traffic noise, pollution, or congestion. This was a kind of architecture where your space and its experience changed with seasons as different trees around you would flower and fruit, migratory birds would join the local birds, frogs would appear in the monsoons and butterflies in spring. 

Anupama Kundoo House in Auroville

Along with the spatial innovations, at the Auroville Building Center we were building homes with mud excavated from the sites (hence not requiring new building material), straw and other renewable recycled materials like glass bottles, broken tiles, etc. There were also stepped pools in my backyard that organically filtered the water from the kitchen and bathroom. Communities generated power through the sun and wind. These were the innovations in Auroville almost 11 years back, probably it is time for a few of these to make their way to commercial construction, specially while building on Greenfield (i.e. virgin) sites in environmentally sensitive areas.

House for Pradeep Jayewardene in Mirissa, Sri Lanka by Geoffery Bawa

Geoffery Bawa – What I love about Bawa’s work is his understanding and use of local natural materials, the play of light in his buildings and the integration of open spaces in his designs. Bawa got the opportunity to work on some of the most beautiful sites in tropical Sri Lanka, its seafronts and lush green hills. The key element in his design has been to integrate his buildings with nature. The buildings were never meant to make an architectural statement but instead get lost in the landscape. His architecture was more about the outside than the inside. In urban areas, Bawa pioneered the courtyard house where the home and its living areas were arranged around internal courtyards instead of looking out onto noisy city streets. In suburban and rural sites, Bawa deconstructed the traditional courtyard home to create 'walls' and 'no walls' breaking the separation between inside and outside spaces, creating outdoor rooms and embracing the site's landscape.

House for Osmund and Ena de Silva, an urban courtyard house in Colombo by Geoffery Bawa

Bawa has influenced several architects in Goa, most notably Architect Gerard da Cunha and Dean D'Cruz. While in architecture school, I also had the chance to visit Goa and we visited many buildings built by these two leading architects. They left a firm impression on my mind. Gerard and Dean built in Goa while respecting the land and nature of Goa. It was legend among us students that these two architects many times did not do drawings but actually designed their buildings on-site while considering all the unique site features of orientation, wind direction, topography, views, trees and other vegetation. It presented a respect for the site and surroundings that I hope to embody in our designs. 

House designed by Dean D'Cruz 

Other leading architects in India have been following these principles of responsiveness to the site and surrounding and environmental sustainability. Unfortunately, this way of building has not found its way into commercial real estate development. Most commercial construction tends to play it safe, are afraid to experiment and therefore produce conventional buildings that look and feel the same regardless of their location and specific conditions. We hope to change that by raising the bar. Stay with us while we work on it.

Continue Reading:

Design Concept II