Conceived as a carefully crafted piece of glass and granite, the home designed by SPASM Design Architects is arranged linearly on the site, preserving the native vegetation. The large floor-to-ceiling windows, which act as sliding walls on opposite sides, are a key element in the spatial definition of the project. The linearity of the proposal responds to the retractable movement of the large windows.
The volumetry adopted for the proposal has a significant horizontal component that laterally defines neither beginning nor end: the two ends exceed the height of the central rooms, allowing the living rooms to function as viewing points of the surrounding environment. Parikrama House is an example of a home that not only integrates with its surroundings but also establishes a close visual and spatial connection with its culture and context.
Parikrama House by SPASM Design Architects. Photograph by Javier Callejas.
Project description by SPASM Design Architects
Approached by a friend who represents a Minimal-window producer from Portugal, called PANORAMAH. We, were given the task of developing a sort of case study home, in the Murud region amidst a coconut grove.
The windows being super high-tech and modern in their presence were meant to disappear against the verdant view.
The plan evolved like a two headed worm, with the sleeping spaces in series and the higher main living and dining spaces flanking opposite ends of the series. The idea being, the tracing of a PARIKRAMA, a circum-ambulatory path, while moving from spaces, always in contact with the outside.
The entire construction was planned in TILT- UP STONE slabs, hence allowing the minimal windows into cavity walls, Granite 40 millimeters. Thick was the material of choice. STONE, has a sense of time built into it, like the GRANDFATHER of building materials. It is also a highly sustainable material to build with due to the least number of processes on it, from quarry to site.
Conceived as a super modern yet ancient vessel this construct, is a simple assemblage of giant panels of glass against huge Stone slabs.
A Primitive sense of dwelling pervades, as the day turns into a starry night sky and the light pours out of the glass making the stone invisible, A REVERSAL of what one perceives in the day….
Once all else decays the Stones will still stand...
