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
