Round House by studio prAcademics in India

Project: Round HouseArchitects: studio prAcademicsLocation: IndiaArea: 7,965 sq ftYear: 2021Photos by: studio prAcademics

Round House by studio prAcademics

Meet the Round House, a peaceful retreat in the northern suburbs of Ahmedabad, gracefully embraced by water channels and green fields.

Designed as a weekend home for a large family, it harmoniously integrates into the natural environment while preserving existing greenery and bird diversity. Inspired by traditional rural architecture, this round treasure embodies the typology of 'faliyu' and 'osri', featuring open spaces for gatherings, ample lighting, and a green surroundings.

The Round House is a harmonious blend of tradition and modernity, where architecture dances with nature, offering a tranquil escape from the hustle of daily life.

The Round House is located in Jaspar, the northern suburb of Ahmedabad. While a water channel runs along the southern boundary of the plot, the other sides are surrounded by agricultural fields. With water and green fields around it, plus more than 120 trees—mostly mango and sapodilla—the site is home to various birds, an important element of the area's biodiversity. The proposed project is a weekend house for a large family of 14 members, including four children under ten years old. Since the plot is among natural features, we intended to carefully introduce a built form without disturbing the existing set of features and trees.

We defined a tree-free zone and attempted to fit the compactly built form, thereby creating a smaller footprint. The site has varying levels of topography, and the program evolved with integration of landscape design into existing contours. The zone where the house should be located was raised by 3 meters and presented as a table with green lawns. This elevated plane partially accommodates the built form, while other parts of the structure project outward. The proposed elevated house offers many opportunities for the front and the house to be surrounded by lush foliage of growing fruit trees, with birds often running within arm’s reach.

The building form draws inspiration from traditional rural typology of the Saurashtra region, Gujarat, where 'faliyu' refers to the front area as an open-air entrance zone providing sufficient light and ventilation, 'osri' refers to the linear veranda as a buffer space often used for informal seating, passage, and temporary sleeping. The kitchen and bedrooms are located behind the linear veranda to maintain privacy and create thermal comfort with controlled sunlight and adequate ventilation.

To achieve a compact form of this typology, the built mass adopted a circular ring shape. Here, the entrance space 'faliya' becomes a gathering area with enough seating to allow light to filter through the gaps created by lifting the circular roof. 'Osri' here performs its traditional function as a corridor for passage, separating bedrooms, kitchen and dining room from the living space. Since brick cladding walls and interior spaces surround the living area, forming a ring, the built mass strategically incorporates perforations to create various views of the naturally preserved landscape from interior spaces. A sloped, bowl-like slab is designed to provide shade for walls and openings.

We at studio prAcademics explore the interaction between human body dynamics and spatial softness. The overall perception assumes that space remains static, with everything including people revolving around it. Rarely is this physical manifestation of human dynamics evident, and space becomes the reverse: it starts revolving around everything else.

–studio prAcademics