• YEAR : 2022
  • LOCATION : Hyderabad, India
  • CATEGORY : Residential

Lurra House

The Lurra House celebrates different gradients of transparency. It is not an all-out naked transparency.
Instead of seamless and frameless glazing surrounding the perimeter of the house, a much more refined and intrinsically detailed framing of vertical structural timber posts and slender horizontal mullions lend a sense of scale and proportion to the elevation. This framework that somewhat resembles a vintage art-deco “shopkeepers” cabinet acts as a suggestive threshold that defines the interiors as much as it defines the exteriors and therefore strengthens the dialogue between the two.

 

Arrival

The approach towards Lurra House is one of discovery. Without disclosing anything yet, a few gentle steps take you up along a covered verandah in the direction of the granite boulder. A closed slatted wall on the left curves out towards the end, while the boulder reveals itself and guides you into the house. After entering the house, the entry hall transforms into a larger volume that and opens up to a triple-height central space connecting the lower ground floor with the first floor.

 

Shade

Along the periphery, a continuous “in-between-space” provides shade against the sun and protects the indoors from incoming rains. On the ground floor, a deck line extends further outside the roofline to provide the duality of being under the shade or enjoying the open sky. The living, dining, and kitchen spaces on this floor have a direct visual and physical connect to the garden, the pool, and the surrounding vegetation.

Project Data

Project Name

Lurra House

Year

2021

Themes

Sustainability, Context, Solar Energy, Typology

Status

Ongoing

Size

1200 sq.m.

Program

Family House

Eduardo Chillida’s sculpture from the ‘Lurra’ series.

Eduardo Chillida’s sculptural forms depict the artist’s recurring investigations into spaces and their limits in the permanent dialogue between the solid and the void. His work from the ‘Lurra’ series perfectly embodies the artist’s career-long exploration of space in poetic and unique form.

Executed in terracotta, these works share the same creative process as his works in iron and steel, having been through the fire oven to bake the clay they are made from. Each sculpture is rendered unique through variable perforated designs and alternate burning methods, which result in impressive variation of shape and color.

The series of ‘Lurra’ named after the Basque word of the earth is a prime example of Chillida’s use of this medium to explore space and materiality.

Aerial site photograph

Hyderabads cityscape is steeped in culture and geological marvels. These ancient rock formations are characteristic to Hyderabad’s geology, and one can find large granite boulders in the most unassuming of sites!

Conceptual diagram

Plans

We designed each of the four quadrants in the Lurra House to have a defined functionality with their own identity and orientation without any physical separations. This facilitates interaction between the different quadrants throughout the day.

Upon entering the house, the entry hall transforms into a larger volume that opens to a triple-height central space connecting the lower ground floor with the first floor. This is the fulcrum of the house about which the four quadrants lie.

The glazing along the curved periphery creates remarkable effects of reflections and multiplications that keep changing through the day and night. The meandering verandah on the first floor alternately widens and narrows, wrapped by a slatted screen for privacy. A light pavilion on the roof terrace is a multifunctional space for the family.

Section AA

Section BB