The conceptual form of the bungalow is one that was primarily generated by the unique site that was chosen. Located atop the highest point of a cinnamon estate, that forms a 9-acre island among the otherwise flat paddy fields of the area. The 3600 views are equally exciting, therefore needed significant consideration.
Envisaged as a circular edge of a “forest clearing”, the structure needed to merge with the dense plantation. The approach was to define the inner edge only and let the outer edge be randomly broken to organically amalgamate with the landscape.
This corresponds spatially as well, where the journey through the dense plantation opens up to the expanse of the sky at the plateau. Within the clearing, the structure does not impede the views, borrowing landscapes, and establishes the place as a part of the vast horizons it draws upon.
The structure is zoned into individual functional zones, creating solids and voids that are devoid of symmetricity and similarity. The conceptual approach is to mimic the forested landscape, where one would experience faraway vistas through the tree trunks and tree canopies in the foreground, varying views, rendering them unique from different places and angles they are experienced.
The radiality of the roof form is broken by the juxtaposition of the room volumes, enhancing the envisioned asymmetry of the natural context. Further, the preference for the single tree at the centre of the clearing is a Banyan Tree. When the tree grows, it is envisioned that its aerial roots will create a structure similar to the bungalow’s random tree trunk columns, merging the built and the natural.
This conceptual approach is adopted within the interior spaces as well, where skylights mimic the light penetrating a forest canopy creating random pools of light. The lit zones move with the Sun’s path, during the day and year, thus creating spatially and temporally dynamic spaces, animated by the shadows cast on the surfaces.

Materiality -
The materiality of the envelop is especially important to form and space-making. The materiality of the whole is one that embraces natural material in its most natural form and texture. The total timber structure, walls and floors create a lightweight intervention in the landscape. It allows a minimal connection to the ground, with spaces suspended above it. Treatment of the timber was also undertaken on-site, with columns scorched as a method to preserve and create a weathered finish, enhancing the natural textures.
The roof is of a series of fibre-lined troughs, punched randomly by skylights. The roof is meant to be grown upon, opting for climbing plants that will eventually form a mat of green. The plants originate at the ground level, thus eliminating the need for a growing medium at the roof level, easing water management and load-bearing needs. (The images presented on the panels are of the recently completed project, therefore do not communicate the extensive vegetation envisioned in the design.)
The material choice also allowed for dry construction processes, thus avoiding difficult handling of wet construction methods on the difficult-to-access terrain of the cinnamon estate. An unavoidable exception to this was the pool structure, which is the single drawback of the otherwise low embodied energy material palette.

ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY / APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE TROPICS:
The primary motivation for sustainability stemmed from the decision to explore the building as a low embodied energy building that touches the earth lightly.

The siting -
The site for the bungalow in a large property that is almost 9 acres in extent was chosen such that new ground was not utilised. The site is a natural plateau accessed by prior constructed roads; thus, the design did not utilise forested zones. The site is deemed to be already ‘touched’ due to its utilisation as a cinnamon plantation.
The contours of the land were maintained, and the structure was designed as a single-floor level suspended at one level, thus varying in height from the natural terrain. Further, the levels were utilised to tuck a second level below the ‘clearing’ level.
Natural Light and Ventilation:
The envelop is designed such that the spaces it encloses benefit from natural light and ventilation, which does not hinder its level of thermal comfort and daylit spaces.
The approach to light within spaces was one that mimicked the quality of light in the heavily planted tree canopy of a forest and patterns of light that filter through. The low – yet comfortable – level of diffused light, reflecting off natural surfaces was a key objective.

On the project as a green building initiative -
The Architect strives to consciously build according to the Warm Humid (Tropical) Climatic context of Sri Lanka, and thus, this project is taken as an opportunity to explore a low embodied energy material palette that can merge and then eventually be absorbed back into the environment.
The landscape is crucial to the concept. It explores landscape elements that are on the building skin, those that filter and create shading screens and landscapes that are borrowed from afar. It is understood that the building will need a period of time to reach this stage, yet the building envelop remains conducive to good thermal comfort, given the passive strategies and insulative properties of the timber enclosure.

Renewable Energy and Water -
As a working estate, energy and water are needed for its day-to-day functions. The bungalow uses off-site (within the estate) solar PVs to provide energy loads demanded in a Leisure Industry facility. Water is also sourced on-site. Therefore, the facility has the ability to function off-grid.