At Architecture BRIO, each house we design is a bespoke solution. They are the result of a comprehensive understanding of the clients brief, location, topography or context.
Our design process starts with asking the right questions. By formulating a variety of ideas on the project, conversations with the project team, and a thorough understanding of the site, we select the best ideas from the many potential possibilities and approaches. Hence the design of each house undergoes a rigorous back and forth process. We emphasise on going through this process together with our clients and collaborators. This ensures that the chosen approach is as much suited to their needs as it befitting the site. Even in residential projects, we believe that architecture is a public art, regardless of whether it is situated in a public, urban or rural context.
In our work, humble, natural materials an inexpensive resources feel tailored and precious. Finely crafted details enhance the tactile and visual sensitivity of the design. Our architecture is simple, uses ample natural light and ventilation and integrates both physically and visually with the landscape. Minimising the use of un-renewable energy sources and working towards a sustainable future is equally important.
We look at residential architecture as a back drop to daily life, rather than becoming the centre stage. Architecture is therefore a tool to enhance the everyday experience of daily life. Nevertheless, our clients’ goals in each project may be different; whether it is to be closer to nature, enjoy its mere functionality or appreciate the touch and feel of well crafted details and materials.
Our residential projects are situated in diverse climates. They range from the cold climate of the Himalayas to the tropical southern Konkan coast and beyond. Conscious of this diversity we offer localised sustainable solutions for each. We help our clients uncovering the latent potential and character of their property. Since we work in these varied geographic and climatic conditions, our projects are able to reveal the unique quality of each particular context.
The Ray Villa in Alibag emphasises on the profile of the built form in relation to the hilltop property overlooking the Mumbai bay. Two staggered linear pavilion-like structures, directed towards the view, define the character of the house. They are strong manifestations that act as long spatial telescopes, bringing the distant sea views seemingly closer by.
This nature retreat located in the heart of the Ardennes forests in the south of Belgium reflects the combination of local heritage and contemporary architecture. Four storey stone tower provides unique experience and magnificent views towards surrounding nature.
With a stream running through the house, this retreat in Alibag delicately weaves into the landscape. It alternately opens up and closes itself to the different characteristics of the site. The house is like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings. With its several limbs, it reaches out into the landscape. Each “limb” makes full use of the views within the site and dramatizes special moments.
The Riparian House is placed below the crest of a hillock at the foothills of the Ghats near Mumbai. The top of a vegetated roof merges with the top of the hillock, hiding the house while approaching. A bamboo screen surrounding a deep verandah causes an ever-changing pattern of light and shadow throughout the seasons and times of the day, making the Riparian House a ‘sensor’ of light.
The Himalayan Mountain Home is a collection of thoughtfully crafted pavilions nestled into the terraced slopes of Sitla, surrounded by dense forests and orchards. Each structure harmonizes with its unique setting, framing the breathtaking Himalayan panorama. Designed as a sanctuary, it invites a deep connection to nature through serene, intimate spaces and ever-changing views.
BillionBricks Homes is the world’s first carbon negative, self financing home for the homeless. It address the scarcity of homes across rural communities and the impossibility of access to financing. It is a radical concept in housing designed for ‘energy sufficiency’ and ‘extreme affordability’. The structure of the house is built in an indigenous prefab assembly technique that makes it easy to assemble in remote locations.
This private family house in Switzerland is set within the beautiful Jura mountain range, and draws inspiration from the surrounding geological formations and traditional local barns in its geometry and materiality. Each room and window have been positioned and oriented to frame and enjoy the magnificent views of the Alps and nearby valleys.
This housing scheme in Goa is set within the hills along the Mormugao Bay, neighbouring the Nauxim village, and is gifted by nature with unobstructed views of the Zuari river. Its looped, courtyard housing typology shapes two communal gardens. From here, nature is allowed to continue upwards onto the roofscape, blending seamlessly with the surrounding landscape. The scheme is deigned as a dense yet diverse ribbon, expressing both craftmanship and geometric rigour.
The Lurra House in Hyderabad celebrates the natural features despite it central urban location in the city. A refined and intrinsically detailed framing of vertical structural timber posts and slender horizontal mullions lend a sense of scale and proportion to the elevation. A continuous verandah that moves inwards and outwards defines the interiors as much as it defines the exteriors and therefore strengthens the dialogue between the two.
House of Galleries is designed around an unconventional courtyard space with a sculpted landscape, and draws inspiration from a short movie including snips of Iranian films, artists and photographers works of art. These images, together with the exceptional natural context of the Rann of Kutch, became catalysts in shaping the unique home with long, experiential walks through one space to another, elevating the site itself as a museum.
This two-story home in Worli, Mumbai, is designed for a family of ten, offering five bedrooms and a blend of common and private spaces. The design unifies diverse family preferences with a cohesive wood-centric aesthetic, incorporating a large library, living room, and a wood-designed bar. The home integrates books and art to create a personalized, harmonious environment.
The double height courtyard greets you when you enter the Urban Green Home. The variations in shades, textures and tones intersperse with a tall fiddle leaf fig plant in the central space. the common areas of the lower level of the urban green home as a more fluid space. Spaces extend into each other visually. without revealing each space completely at first glance.
Bandra was once a leafy suburb of Mumbai city. In recent times it has become a vibrant yet highly dense neighbourhood, symptomatic of the crunching space in Indian metropolises. As a result, the floor space of an average household gets more and more constrained and precious. This increasing problem has been ingeniously addressed in a 7th floor apartment in Bandra.
Built within a beautiful palm plantation, the 30-year old humble structure with four thick walls and small windows seemed unresponsive towards its context. The refurbishment of the house starts with a new imagination of the space, one that is permeable, and pertinent to the surroundings. By reducing the house down to the structure and removing internal walls, the house starts to breath and gets a new life.
The House in a Beach Garden used to be segregated from its seafront by a tall boundary wall, It separated the property both physically and visually from the much coveted coastline of the Mumbai bay. A missed opportunity. Therefore the first and most important intervention was to lift the garden up 5 feet above the existing level, such that the house, the garden and the top of the boundary wall, were all aligned in one level.
The yoga retreat is conceptualised as an extrusion of its terraced Himalayan landscape. One could imagine that an incidental geological formation pushed up a section of the terraces in the shape of a malformed asymmetrical three winged boomerang. Underneath, above and between the ground plane and the roof, the yoga retreat is a device to experience the landscape in diverse ways.
The Socorro Villa is an aerial structure in a thick canopy in the northern part of Goa as part of a luxury residential development designed with 5 emerging architects. Perched on a series of extremely slim columns, the skeleton structure twists and turns between the forest canopy. From decks and glazed enclosures at various levels, residential life intertwines with animal life in the forest.
The Wetland Resort in Vengurla aims to revitalise the ecosystem of the site by creating a waterscape with interconnected ponds and waterbodies. Five proposed waterbodies accommodate 16 holiday homes and a boat house. The homes are clustered as stilted pavilions; sometimes on the land and sometimes on water.