Architects' Own House

Sri Lanka

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Architects' Own House

Sri Lanka

Firm

Jeeva & Channa Horombuwa Architects

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2014

SIZE

3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

This is the Architects’ own house designed by husband & wife Architects themselves. This house sits on a ten perch slightly sloping land surrounded by two roads, in a residential area in Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. The irregular shape of the land, the limited buildable area due to the two building lines from the two roads were the major constraints to be tackled when designing this house. This house has been designed as two residential units with two bedrooms for each with other basic facilities. Although the whole house acts as a single unit at present, possibilities are there to easily convert it into two units when required.
The concept of the house was to design a contemporary minimalist house to feel more volume & space inside the house and capture the wind direction to feel airy inside the house throughout the day. All the bedrooms were located towards the back of the land to capture the wind from south west and also to cut off the views of the road side for privacy. The entrance level has been raised from the entrance road level and further the dining area has been raised from the entrance level to locate an additional garage space at a lower ground floor, accessible from the side sloping road. The Entrance level comprised of the main garage and the double height living area. The dining, pantry, guest’s room together with the attached bath room, powder room and the kitchen are located at a raised split level above the garage at the lower ground floor. The first floor contains the master bedroom, a terrace, dressing area, a large attached bath room, utility space, TV lobby and the main feature of the house, the glass deck, located above the living area. A large glazed sliding panel has been introduced for the master bedroom, so that the bedroom gets visually connected to the main void, once the sliding panel is opened. The whole idea is to connect all spaces visually so that the user feels spacious inside the house. The three main floors are connected by two floating staircases running across the double height. The second floor consists of a large sitting area, a powder room, pantry, bedroom with a common bath room and a TV room. The sitting area opens out to a covered terrace. The steel spiral staircase which acts as an external feature of the house runs from ground floor all the way up to the open to sky roof terrace, located above the covered terrace.
White has been selected as the theme colour of the house and the walls, floors, pantry cup boards, Doors & windows, furniture, skirting, light fittings and even the roller blinds used for windows all follow the same theme. The main purpose was not to highlight anything inside the house so that the use feel more comfortable without any visual disturbances.
Imported famous designer furniture like Eames’ Lounge chair, Mies Van Der Roah’s Barcelona chair, etc. highlight minimalist beauty of the contemporary interior of this house.
Since the clients and the Architects are same in this project, the two Architects found it very difficult to agree on design ideas and as a result the design period has become endless with each others' criticism.