THE SHADOW HOUSE >

Sahan Gaon, Alibaug, Maharashtra

5000 sqft [2014 – 2017]

Offset by an interplay of forms, a tranquil garden, a refined

materiality and abstracted quality of light and shadows, The

Shadow House assumes a posture of exploration.

The Shadow House allows for a low and fragmented

configuration to gradually absorb and filter the layers of

its 1.2 acres context, the sultry and outlying landscape of

Alibaug. “When I first saw it, there were two lonely trees; a

view of the hills in the distance and dry fields all the way to

the sky, all around. In that scorching heat, there was only

one desire – to be lulled back into that familiar dark, cold,

calmness,” writes Samira Rathod.

SAMIRA RATHOD DESIGN ASSOCIATES, MUMBAI

Principal Architect:
Samira Rathod

Project Team:
Girish Bhadra + Rameshwar Bhadhwa + Jeevaram Suthar +
Hasnain Kadiani + Ariff Abdulla
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Above: The low-slung stark cuboidal forms of the outer shell against Episodically, the semblance of 5000sqft comes together in
the landscape. an overlay of textures. The entire landscape sequentially

is generated by the movement of an entrance pathway

Facing page: The skin of the residence is an active surface with
protrusions and recessions, relational to the spaces inside. which ambles along a verdant landscape from the eastern

edge along to the house. The orientation of the house is

appropriated aptly between the two trees.

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The façades of the house are composed with varying old homes in the hills of Northern India. The stairs and its

intersecting geometries and elements, cohesive and ordered sliced wooden railings, the bridge held by the steel portals

around a semi-enclosed courtyard. The openness falls away the accordion windows of the living room, legs of tables, the

to the intimate and protected confines in fleeting instances, flooring patterns, and soft cotton sheers, all form a larger

where, as described, “The first of its layers, on the southern subset of overlapping layers. Its every element is designed

side, is a thick, dead, coloured concrete wall - a heavy and detailed as if to obstruct light; shredded.”

thermal curtain to ward off the heat. The second layer is the

corten steel pitched roof over the woody bridge, holding

the study area with windows like piano keys, alluding to

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It is about the asymmetry, the static, and the scenery. The

Above: Conceptual sketches depicting planning of the site and
western façade is penetrated to open into an entrance the spaces.

foyer and moves onward in an explicator, non-hierarchical

arrangement. The composition, almost L-shaped, of living Facing page: Axonometric view of the house and interior space.

spaces and three bedrooms revolves around an elongated

courtyard extending into a plunge pool at the northern

corner. A set of effusive gestures, physical and subjective, are

calibrated to frame tactile and sensory engagements. “The

courtyard,” she adds, “is marked with a babul tree for shade,

which as it would grow would engulf its entire space and

suffuse the house with its blazing fragrance and a confetti of

tiny white flowers every morning.”

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LANDSCAPED SITE PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECTION B – B

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

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The broad corridor engulfing it, connecting to the floor above

Above: The innermost core of the house retreats from the plunge
pool and the courtyard towards the broad corridor. sinews the perforated edges. Under the Corten roof, the flight

of stairs ascends to a transversal spatial condition, leading

to the Master and Kids’ bedrooms and forming terraces. There

Facing page: The sleek profile Corten roof sloping downward toward is an inscription of lightness and a profusion of changing
the plunge pool.
patterns; boundaries between inside and outside are relaxed;

shafts of light stream in from the skylights, the patina sheen

of the partly sloping Corten roof, to identically sized apertures

that wrap the upper floor corridor to the incisive floor pattern

made with various pigmented handmade concrete tiles and

the subdued brown hued walls.

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The transversal volume of the corridor Every gesture of space and light
overlooking the courtyard space, while renders a suffusive, tactile quality to the
connecting the rooms above. interior spaces.
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The house is designed like a sieve through which light is filtered,

These material choices are implicit in prompting the
dappled and draped into its hollows. visceral moments within the building. Each alignment

draws out a specific journey through space and light,

characterised by the most elementary of interventions –

colour, light-shadows, and distinctive volumes. The lengths

and depths are toned perceptually to open out from

degrees of seclusion to the naturalness outside. Of this,

the architect mentions, “The living experience is designed

to be gentle; dark, quiet and erotic, with its hierarchy of

volumes and spatial textures. Steel, concrete and wood

are choreographed to manufacture shadows and intrigue.”

The polyandry with these three materials specifies an

unambiguous intensity for the narrative.

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It is a structure crafted to ally diverse experiences –

of domesticity and otherwise – into a synchronised

materialisation. And it is designed to amplify the esoteric

possibilities offered by the landscape design and the

tectonics. In this absolute tactility of a bared aesthetic, it

emerges as a collage, transfixed to follow an induced

enigma of the movement and proportion. Sculpturally and

figuratively inhabiting the landscape, the essence is deeply

embedded in the making. It is rich in its own simplicity.

Above: The materiality and the orchestrated movements gather

for the resident an experience ‘designed to be gentle; dark, quite
and erotic’.

Facing page: The flooring is devised as a ‘freely painted canvas with

various pigmented handmade concrete tiles’.
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Product & Material Applications

Tiles > Piccolo Tiles

Lighting > Philips

Colour > Asian Paints

Bath Fittings > Jaquar

Furniture > The Big Piano, Baro India,

Krishna Interior

Carpets & Rugs > The Big Piano, Fabindia

Ply > Marin and Flexi, Anchor Plywood

Air Conditioning > Daikin

Key Contributors

Structural Design > Rajiv Shah & Associates

Civil Contractor > Motar Construction, Classic

Contractor and Siddharth Construction

Landscape Design > Arif Nursery

MEP Consultants > Hydrotech Consultant

HVAC Consultants > HTL Aircon Pvt Ltd

Photography Credits

Edmund Sumner