An heirloom home with a modern façade - The Brown Envelope by Alok Kothari Architects

The Brown Envelope stands out in an old-world charm residential neighborhood in southern Pune for its majestic yet minimal design style.

A stroll along the bustling lanes of Sahakar Nagar takes one through the journey of a neighborhood that even today has glimpses of its past. In a series of compact bungalows, the brown envelope catches the attention of every passerby. A subtle grey boundary wall is designed to highlight the brown volumetric mass sitting on the house's first floor. The lush landscape designed in the margins of the plot adds a sense of connection of the indoors with nature.

Ar. Alok Kothari while describing the intent behind his design, says, "Connection of the interiors with the outdoor landscape is at the core of the design. The intent was to use landscape as a tool to overcome the limitations of the existing structure and establish a strong connect with nature."

The owners of the house decided to relocate to Pune post-retirement from a government job at the coal mines at Ranchi. They wished to re-design their 40-year-old house built by his father as his retirement home.

Wood - the multitasker

One thing that stands out in the design of Brown Envelope is the way wooden finishes are explored in so many different ways. The multiple materials like the veneers, laminates as well as solid wood are used carefully to design elements that would further highlight a particular space. To complement the extensive use of wood, smaller elements like aluminum window frames, bedroom flooring, and even the fans are provided with a wooden texture. Windows and storage in all the rooms are designed with vertical grooves to challenge the horizontality of the window frames. The overall use of wood in a variety of ways adds a unique sense of warmth throughout the house.

The pause points

The house is opened up to the landscape designed in the plot margins at multiple strategic locations. The architect rightfully calls them 'the pause points'. These pause points are highlighted by the provision of some element of surprise in the form of feature vertical gardens or outdoor seating. The feature walls in front of these openings act like anchor points for the entire landscape design. Additionally, they also double up as visual barriers and provide privacy to the user.  The outdoor hardscape – a combination of light and dark grey stone slabs along with tactile stones accentuates the brown in the building façade. Geometric patterns along with floral motifs in the pause points provide a variety to the eye.

The lightweight aluminum box

The existing structure having gone through changes during its time, had an uneven elevation design. The challenge that the architect faced was to hide this unevenness and the projections jutting out of it to give it a uniform look. This gave him the idea to design a perforated box made up of lightweight aluminum fins that would envelop the first floor. To reminisce about the past, the ground floor is wrapped in a brick skin that imparts warmth to the house. In order to break the brown-on-brown monotony, black granite stone slats are introduced into the brick skin. It provides a horizontality that complements the vertical linearity of the aluminum fins at the first level.

Materials of the past

Connecting the exteriors with the interiors is the main intent of every design element in the house. This theory applies to the color and material palette of the design too. The exercise of wrapping the house with a brown envelope led the architect to experiment and understand a variety of materials. A combination of bricks, granite, and aluminum fins on the exterior highlighting the browns are reflected in the interiors through the use of wood, veneers, and laminates. On one hand, the veneers reflect modern times while the terrazzo flooring brings in memories of the past. This juxtaposition of different materials at different levels makes this a distinct style of design.

The Brown Envelope is a true reflection of how a modern home can be built with all the latest technologies while keeping the roots of the past in our hearts. The careful selection and use of materials along with design strategies that would remind the clients of their childhood is itself an example of this thought. The timeless design and the evergreen materials make for the perfect combination of design with intent and emotions.

Alok concludes, "The Brown Envelope is designed to be a unique structure in the neighborhood, similar to the older house that stood out in its time!"

To watch the full video of The Brown Envelope and access a detailed E-Book of the project, visit here

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