Within the sweltering summer season of Gujarat, ‘Cool Home’, a sustainable residence designed by Samira Rathod, makes use of no ACs and coolers to stay naturally cool.

Summers in India carry with them the tantalizing delights of aam pannas and shikanjis, which offer a refreshing refuge from the scorching warmth. However even with these respites, Indian summers may be harsh and unforgiving. For essentially the most a part of April to July, many areas face excessive warmth, with temperatures going as much as 48 levels Celsius. 

Amidst the dry and arid metropolis of Bharuch in Gujarat, there exists a outstanding home that defies the norm of blasting coolers and air conditioners to beat the warmth. Not like most households, this distinctive abode manages to stay comfortably cool with none of those gadgets. 

“The shopper needed a ‘cool’ home metaphorically and actually, so that’s what we delivered. We used the path of the winds, design and cooling supplies to decrease the warmth of the home,” says Samira Rathod, the principal architect and founding father of Samira Rathod Design Atelier. 

Preserving it cool and breezy 

“Each time I begin with a challenge, I ask the shopper what they particularly need of their home. For the homeowners of Cool Home, the very first thing he talked about was that he needed a home that helps them beat the arid warmth of Bharuch,” she shares. 

The Cool Home took a great 5 years of sketching, designing, and experimenting to finish. 

“The shopper already had a property that he was residing in and needed to deconstruct it. The plot of land was situated in a society and there have been homes throughout it. I realised that the home gained’t open to any view particularly,” she says. 

Samira determined to make the home an introverted one, with all of the views opening inside quite than exterior. 

“The plot had three buildings round it and a highway on one facet. The one view that the home would have was the neighbour’s constructing. An introverted home was a sensible choice in that sense. It’s principally one the place the home opens up whenever you go inside it. From the surface, it might seem like a quite closed construction,” she explains. 

“The home appears to be like inwards and we have now created courtyards with timber so it looks like you’re looking exterior quite than inside. In the course of the courtyard on the primary ground, we have now a good looking tree with a view like a backyard,” she provides. 

The home, which is constructed on a ten,500 sq ft space, has a singular design construction that enables the wind to move by the house. 

Samira explains, “I had a passive vitality design in thoughts for the home. The air in Bharuch is cool throughout sure instances and we needed to make use of that. We created a channel operating throughout the northeast and southwest for the wind to move by,” she says. 

Constructed on a track-like design with rooms on both facet of the home, there are courtyards that assist the wind flow into. “Even when the wind is barely heat, the air passes by a water physique that we created on the south facet and cools down. This air in flip cools the complete home down,” she says. 

Samira continues, “Apart from the channel, one other factor that helps to carry down the temperature is the terrace backyard with one other small water physique. This cools the second ground down together with the operating channel, the courtyard with a jali construction on one finish of it,”

To fight the warmth, the home utilises 18-inch thick exterior partitions and a soothing lime plaster inside, successfully holding the rooms cool and breezy. 

Moreover, to make the home extra sustainable, they used reclaimed wooden for the inside and now have photo voltaic panels for vitality, and photo voltaic geysers. 

‘We discover peace right here’ 

“The home feels so quaint and peaceable. Three generations of my household reside on this home together with my mother and father, my spouse and my two daughters and we take pleasure in each inch of the home,” says the present proprietor of the home. 

“Once I considered constructing a brand new residence, I had some concepts in thoughts. As an illustration, I needed it to be as minimal as potential and I needed to make use of conventional strategies of cooling. My ideas aligned with Samira very properly and I knew my home was in good arms,” he provides. 

The proprietor says that courtyards add to the fantastic thing about the home. “We have now a number of timber in the home which make the introverted design work splendidly. The home stays so breezy and funky even in peak summers. The home windows are a mix of 63 giant and small ones to let the air flow into all through the constructing,” he says. 

“My solely concern with the home was that it’ll warmth up. The home is south dealing with and receives solar all through the day, so naturally, the warmth used to get trapped. Nonetheless, with Samira’s glorious design the temperature of the home stays as little as 29 levels,” he says. 

Via the collective efforts of the architect and the applied design decisions, a formidable discount of 10 levels in temperature was achieved, providing a big respite from the scorching warmth.

“Even when it’s 45 levels exterior, the temperature in the home stays round 30-35 levels. In some areas, it’s even decrease. In the event you come and sit within the courtyard, you gained’t want a fan as it’s so breezy,” says the proprietor. 

“After the home was full and able to transfer in to, I used to be involved that each one the thermal concepts that I used are on the check now. It was peak Could, and it was burning exterior. However inside, the home remained cool. The breeze is there, however most often, the homes usually are not in a position to catch it. With ‘Cool Home’ we have been in a position to catch the breeze and therefore its title,” says Samira. 

(Edited by Divya Sethu)