Place mayaPRAXIS
This architect’s studio is a place for ideas to grow. Its earthy exterior connects it to the site, although in an urban setting. Inside, spaces flow easily from one to another, supporting both collaboration and quiet focus. Art, design, engineering, and people come together here, shaping a culture that is as considered as the architecture itself.
Made with earth dug up from the site, the building sits along a busy neighbourhood street. Trees and plants take over the look and feel of the building outside and and shade it from the action on the street. Inside, the building opens up, to let space and breeze flow, and let sunlight trace its path across.
Crafted with artful care, the place shows a raw character with a gentle beauty.
The design strategy followed a few simple rules - no plaster or paint, sill or lintel or projecting sunshades, and lastly, no tiles. This made the building look and work the way it is now - designed and crafted with care, making it sustainable, site specific and powered with a raw beauty and honesty. Art is woven into the interior space as part of the ceiling, as a mobile in the double height space and as sunlight and shadows moving around the place from the skylights.
The materials celebrate their natural finish like a building under construction. The engineered earth bricks are exposed across the walls inside and outside. The floor slabs in concrete and are finished slightly differently - polished on the floor and smoothed but raw in the ceiling. The steel and concrete columns continue the play of contrasts in structure. The wood in the doors, windows and partitions retain traces from their journey as packing crates.
Many strategies were put in place to make the building ecologically friendly and efficient.
- Rainwater was harvested by collecting the terrace water.
- Natural ventilation and daylight moved in by locating skylights, vents and windows.
- Solar power runs the office electricity.
- Composting is integrated in the garden.
- Terrace garden keeps the Studio cool
Photography: Shine Parsana
