A holiday home in Goa, designed by Dean D’Cruz, makes for multiple experiences
It’s the last house on a side street off a village road in North Goa, and the unusual peaked roofs atop laterite walls stir curiosity. Margarida and Werner Beck, who live in Germany, gave their architect, Goa-based Dean D’Cruz, a simple brief. It was to be a holiday home in the best sense of the word, in which they would spend three to four months every year. D’Cruz, who designed the Nilaya resort in Goa, is known for his ease with natural materials and fluid expressive designs.
Open house
The 200 sq m house sits on a 600 sq m plot with fields on one side and a hill behind. A distinctive paving pattern and a laterite compound wall topped with Spanish tiles lead to a curving seat and a tall column holding up a peaked roof.
The Becks wanted a feeling of openness and lots of light, a merging of interior and exterior. The design achieves all that and more. The house is essentially one large open space, where all activities — living, lounging, dining and cooking — are accommodated under a single, large, tiled roof. Two free-standing soaring columns that hold up the roof, and frame the small and elegant kitchen-cum-bar counter, are the only elements that interrupt the single large fluid space. Margarida, who is of Goan origin, says, “This open kitchen may not work for Indian families, since it is in the middle of the living space and has no privacy.” In fact, the bedrooms are the only truly private spaces in the house.
No right angles
The house has almost no right angles. The shape of the plan and its broadly diagonal placement on site create a generous garden off the living area on one side, and yields a veranda on the other. The plan is angular, and symmetrical around the central living space. But because we enter the house at one end of its length (rather than on an axis perpendicular to it) we do not sense the overall symmetry at all. Instead we are aware of constantly changing angles as we move through the house. New vistas and new corners are constantly revealed. At the end of the living space, for instance, a light wooden staircase on a steel stringer beam clambers up to a loft over the veranda.
In the bedrooms, all the furniture is built-in, including the bed. The master bedroom has been reinterpreted as a single master bed-and-bath enclosure. Only a low wall-cum-headboard stands between the bed and bath areas, while a picture window opens up the space to the outdoor shower and garden beyond. In the guest bedroom too, the corner disappears in a glow of light to reveal a dense clutch of cannas.
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Floating roof, solid walls
D’Cruz seems to work with opposites — lightness versus solidity, rough versus smooth — to achieve an appropriate balance. In the Beck house, the roof seems to float lightly over the solid base (walls). This effect is achieved by reducing the thickness of the wall above a boldly expressed cornice above the windows. Openings in this upper part of the wall go up to the roof and help vent the hot air at a height, keeping the house cool.
The roof is a constant presence. The double-height roof, soaring to 5.2 m at its highest point, has a celebratory spirit, rather like being in a cathedral. The rafters are a constant visual chatter in the background. The floor, in contrast, is a quiet and unbroken surface of dull gold Jaisalmer stone. Indoor walls are plastered, in contrast to the exposed laterite exterior. The brick-red colour of the laterite is vividly set off against the lush greenery.
Constant delight
Compared to other recent projects by D’Cruz, this house is different primarily because of the angled plan form used. This has resulted in creating a house that is constantly changing as one moves through it. The multiple ways in which one encounters the outside while inside also make for an unusual experience; starting with the wide veranda, the lawn, the central square pebbled patch of green in the living area and the corner windows in the bathrooms.
The Beck house proves that the past can be an interesting visual resource for new creative interpretations. This is a completely new expression, yet because of the materials and the familiarity of the elements used there is a feeling of comfort when you encounter the house. Perhaps it is the simple details like the built-in furniture, the seats and perches that are sprinkled around that finally make the house feel accessible and inviting. The Beck house leaves you with a series of memorable moments... a cool veranda, a stretch of secluded lawn, the afternoon light slanting in, embellishing the warm, ochre floor.
Built-in furniture
The kitchen platform is one example of built-in furniture that we are all familiar with. You can have other furniture built-in too, as the Becks have done in their house. Decide where you want your seating, or beds or wardrobes during the design stage. It can be built in stone slabs or masonry and finished in a variety of ways — stone, cement oxide, china mosaic, etc. Built-in furniture requires little maintenance (or repainting), is easy to clean, and unlike wood does not rot or succumb to termites. It can also look dramatic and integral to the architecture. It is excellent for holiday homes, in particular, and can also be a low cost solution for every house.