Copper House II / Studio Mumbai

Architects: Studio Mumbai
Photographs: Courtesy of Studio Mumbai
District: Ahmednagar
Country: India

Copper House II, designed by Studio Mumbai, is located in the village of Chondi and was inspired by the severe floods of 2005. The house is built on pile foundations and elevated above the high-water mark. The design features two distinct blocks connected by a stone-paved courtyard and a copper roof. The ground level includes an open living space and a family room, while the upper level contains private spaces with bedroom and bath. The house employs a layering of light using fine netting, fluted glass, and wooden windows and integrates water elements such as a well, stream, and pool to address seasonal rain.

The hortus conclusus brings together a remarkable collection of contrasting elements. It aims to comprehend the landscape it shuts out, interpret the world it excludes, incorporate the nature it fears, and encapsulate all of this within an architectural composition.

The Enclosed Garden, Rob Aben, Saskia de Wit

The severe flood in Mumbai and its surrounding areas in 2005 left a high-water mark on an existing pump house on the site. This mark was used to establish the datum for the house. Pile foundations were installed, and a slab was cast two feet above the high-water line. The central fill for the house came from the excavation of a well, and the house was built around a central courtyard.

The building’s design is based on three primary architectural principles. The first involves creating two distinct blocks that differ in width by one foot. These blocks are separated by a stone-paved courtyard on the ground level and connected by a copper roof plane at the upper level. On the upper level, the blocks serve as separate personal spaces: one contains a bedroom and bath, while the other includes an additional study.

At the ground level, an indoor family room adjoins the main living space, which is more open compared to the other private areas. This main space serves as the house’s deck, overlooking both the landscape and the courtyard, and offering multiple vistas of varying scales and access points. The copper-covered private spaces on the upper level are arranged in a way that balances intimacy and isolation, which is crucial for the domestic interior.

This spatial strategy also enables different levels of communication, both visual and otherwise, between the upper and lower spaces of the house. In Kerala, located further south from Mumbai along the west coast of the Indian peninsula, the courtyard traditionally served as the center of the house.

The central room, formed by the courtyard flanked by pillars, was called the naalukettu. The entire structure, including the central hall and the four surrounding wings, was also commonly referred to as the naalukettu. This concept of the courtyard as the essence of the house influenced the design of Copper House II, which evolved from an embracing structure to one that opens outward.

The second key architectural move involves layering light through a series of material gestures, each tailored to the light’s direction and the need for varying degrees of privacy. This is achieved using screening devices made of fine netting framed in traditionally crafted wood, fluted glass that diffuses light and incorporates greenery, and sliding and folding wooden windows. These elements create different levels of seclusion while hinting at the surrounding cityscape.

The walls are finished in a celadon-colored traditional plaster, smooth like human skin and crackled like ancient Chinese glaze, giving them the appearance of a fragmented ceramic container. This rectilinear structure is encased with a weathered copper lid. The continuous copper roof plane serves as a secondary datum for the house, providing a surface for potential occupation and cover.

The final architectural element is the inclusion of water. This is seen in the relentless monsoon rains, as well as the well, stream, and pool beyond the house. The design addresses the seasonal ‘anxiety’ of the ground by creating paving within the courtyard in a continuous linear pattern and a loose ring around the house. These undulations help manage the flow of rainwater, guiding it to the nearest exit point.

The entrance portal of the building serves as a “non-place,” situated beneath the first upper copper-wrapped container and becoming a space of pause. In this house, with its hortus conclusus functioning as both container and sieve, the concepts of retreat, passage, and exclusion are explored anew. The final touch involves placing a massive rock, a gift from the owner’s mother, in the courtyard, allowing time to transform it naturally.