Palmyra House By Studio Mumbai Architects, Bijoy Jain Adam Yusuf Loh Jia Jun Ooi Zi En Gerald Kho Ming Xiang Ahmed Babiker Pang Xiao Xuan
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Palmyra House CONTEXT A louvered two-story house, divided into two oblong masses that are somewhat offset from one another. Located outside of Mumbai on the Arabian Sea, Palmyra House was built as a refuge from the bustle of the busy city. The house evokes an amalgam of vernacular architecture and contemporary design. Jain relied on his intuition to guide his process. “There is a constant struggle to understand the sense of that intuition and finding a method within myself to be as honest to it as possible. In this case, it was about a light, air-filled volume,” he says
LOCATION libagh, India nearby the beach of the Arabian sea
CLIMATE The Palmyra house is located outside of Mumbai on the Arabian Sea. It is located inside a functioning coconut plantation. Due to its close proximity to Mumbai, we can assume that it's Koppen Microclimate is similar to that of Mumbai. The Koppen Microclimate classification subtype of Mumbai is "Aw" which translates to "equatorial" "winter dry" (Tropical Savannah Climate.
CULTURAL & SOCIAL CONTEXT Given that India’s restless financial capital, Mumbai, sits just an hour across nearby Mandwa Bay, the area has long been favored by wealthy Mumbaikars seeking weekend homes and a place to relax. -45 minute boat and 45 minutes car ride south from Mumbai. -mostly rural with fishing and harvesting-coconuts. -have a fair amount of vacation homes -And there-rental properties for the cities busnisess class.
MATERIALS Structural framing for the house was built of ain wood, a local hardwood, and was constructed using traditional interlocking joinery. The extensive louvres were handcrafted from the outer part of the palmyra trunk (a local palm species).
Exteriors are detailed with handworked copper flashing and standing seam aluminum roofs; interior surfaces are finished with teakwood and India Patent Stone, a refined pigmented plaster. Locally quarried black basalt was used to construct the stone plinths, aqueduct walls and pool plaza.
PASSIVE DESIGN Palmyra house combines passive design elements,elevations enable passive cooling, as does the extensive shade provided by the coconut trees above; water for the house is harvested from three onsite wells, filtered and stored at the top of a water tower and fed by gravity to the house As the building relies more on passive cooling, the ventilation is mostly natural.
STUDIO MUMBAI ARCHITECTS Founded by Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai is a human infrastructure of skilled craftsmen and architects who design and build the work directly.
"combines indian tradition with modernity"
Utsav House / Studio Mumbai
Copper House II / Studio Mumbai
BIJOY JAIN Bijoy Jain (born 1965) is an indian architect. He received his M. Arch from Washington University in St.Louis USA in 1990. He then worked in Richard Meir office at Los Angeles and London between 1989 and 1995. He returned to India in 1995 and founded his own firm, Studio Mumbai Architects.
MPavilion Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai
House on Pali Hill / Studio Mumbai
STRUCTURE louvered two-story house, divided into two oblong masses that are somewhat offset from one another.
The functions of the house are placed within two oblong masses slightly offset from one another, whose facades are predominantly characterised by louvers made from the trunks of the local Palmyra palm. Anchored to stone platforms, the structures overlook a network of wells and aqueducts that weave the site into an inhabitable whole.
ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS
Site plan
The Palmya house is 3000 sq. Ft was designed as a holiday home for a businessman from Mumbai and is located on a coconut plantation consisting of two different functional wooden roof structures, where the louvres were made from the trunks of coconut trees. connect the site into a residential whole.
SITE PLAN SCALE: 1:250
Perspective
Floor Plan, ground floor
Floor Plan, first floor
Elevations & Section elevation
section elevation scale 1:75
south elevation scale 1:75
west elevation scale 1:75
DIAGRAM ANALYSIS
CONCEPT
Progress Analysis represents a positional relationship between architecture and nature. The two masses show effective reaction to the natural ventilation through the aligned patterns of louvers that that almost the defines the building.
Two contemporary-styled architectural masses and a swimming pool, lay close and in a proximity.
Final Model shows the fenestration, form and the patterns that defines the building.
First attempt: constructing the basic rectangular form, paving the balsa wood to represent the louvers.
Enhancement in showing the louvers, adding plastic sheet to represent the palm leaves filters.
STRUCTURE
Progress Analysis
Using basic timber structural framework with the following techniques: -traditional interlocking joinery -structure grid pattern
-primary & secondary structure member -materiality
Final Model
Double Mortise & Tenon Joint
Square Material T-shaped Joint
Cylinder Wedged Joint
CONTEXT Wind diagram
The wind comes from the South West It is located close to the sea, so in a tropical climate, the Palmyra house feels spacious.
PROGRESS ANALYSIS FIRST ATTEMPT
I tested out how the site context should be presented by starting doing a test model. (improper scale) After did the test model, we made a decision to focus on "WIND" for the context.
The ever-present palmyra louvers (luvers) allowing rich air circulation.
FINAL MODEL Legends Coconut tree Wooden Block Wind
wells Pools
CIRCULATION PROGRESS ANALYSIS FIRST ATTEMPT Both separated plans Hard to clearly get the idea of the circulation of both floors
FINAL MODEL
Colour of the arrows same as the building Circulation of the house is not clearly shown
SPACE PLANNING
PROGRESS ANALYSIS
Final Space planning diagram
FIRST ATTEMPT Change the style of the hatching to be more neat.
The space planning of the Palmyra House includes interlocking and adjacent spaces, inside of the Palmyra house uses grid spatial organization.
Test Model
Did a north block section and a ground floor plan to show public or private.
SECOND ATTEMPT
Added semi public and semi private spaces added one more section and a first floor plan and did hatching on it
colours differentiates the types of spaces as public, semi public, semi private and private
FINAL MODEL The model shows two floor of the building and the colours of different spaces are shown in a flat surface for clearer understanding.
DAYLIGHTING Daylighting diagram
The massing is orientated in such a way that the sun is always almost directly above when it is not rising or setting suggesting that shading is needed directly overhead
FINAL MODEL
The orientation of the building , the pool and the sun path indicates that the pool is constantly exposed to the sun and does not receive shading whereas the buildings are mostly shaded throughout the day
PROGRESS ANALYSIS
-During sunrise, the sunlight is able to enter through the eastside of the buildings, -During noon, the sunlight is shining directly overhead and minimal light is able to enter the building, -During sunset, the sunlight is able to enter through the west side shortly before sundown
The model shows the massing of the buildings and pool in a small scale orientated as to show the sun path for a clearer understanding on where the sun travels through the day