Page 18 - HUDCO DESIGN AWARDS

SUBLIME ORDINARINESS – HOUSING AT VASIND, MAHARASHTRA

The Housing Project
The project houses 54 families of staff working in an
industrial facility. 48 of these are small apartments of
50sqm (Type B) and 6 are larger apartments of 100 sqm
(Type A). For people living in company housing, the comfort
of the new neighborhood is crucial to the sense of
wellbeing. The housing has been designed keeping these
socio-cultural contexts in mind.
The single-loaded corridor typology drawn from the
Mumbai chawls becomes a catalyst in fostering a sense of
community. On the ground floor, apartments are accessible
individually from their own small semi-private space, or
“otla” (raised entrance plinth seen in traditional houses).
On upper floors, four ‘one-bedroom’ apartments are strung
along this corridor space, at the end of which sits an open
staircase. Each staircase is articulated differently with its
first flight angled out giving each block an identity of its
own. Three such Type B blocks come together along with
one semicircular Type A ‘two-bedroom’ block to form an
intimate courtyard which becomes the heart of the housing.
Each apartment comprises of a small multi-functional space
at the entrance with the kitchen on one side and toilets on
the other. This space opens into two non-designated
rooms which can be used as per the needs of the family.
The kitchen near the entrance enables the woman of the
house to be connected to the outside.
Wind, sunlight and rain are the delights of living in tropical
environments such as Mumbai and its surroundings. The
semi-open corridors, staircases, balconies and entrance
plinths give the residents the possibility of enjoying these
natural phenomena and engender interaction and reinforce a
sense of belonging and togetherness. Placing of housing block. Connection of corridor with open space.

Plan of typical Chawl. Plan showing Otla space.