State Commendation Award at the 18th Architect of the Year
Awards 2008 for Indian State Architecture Awards (ISAA)

Architects - Auroville, Pondicherry, India

Private house - Douceur Auroville 2006

Architect : Pino Marchese & client
Construction : Giorgio Luciani
Period: 2005

The renovation and extension of this house in Auroville is in an ‘egoless- timeless’ style which goes beyond fads & doesn’t struggle to be ‘new’ or ‘inventive’ for the sake of it. The original house had been added onto in bits and pieces over the years and the challenge for the makeover was to maintain a delicate balance of the old with the new.

The latest additions were to be the makeover of the entrance area, an entire service section to the house that included a laundry area with washing & drying facilities, stores & ample walk-in wardrobe area and the creation of a pond to liven up the landscaping.

At the entrance there are podiums of dry landscaping with pebbles & boulders that direct to the main door. Upon entering the living cum dining space one experiences the T-shape of the house that opens out to a dry desert type landscaped swimming pool area on one side and lush tropical gardenscape with the pond on the other. A solar pump operates the water bubbling out of the rock in the pond.

The new service area is accessed from the kitchen. Generously lit by big polycarbonate skylights, each of the spaces has beautiful diffused light thus explaining the small wall fenestrations in the form of slits in one area and grid of small square openings in the other.

The house is painted in two tropical shades of orange that highlight the different volumes & the context of the house. Dry zen gardens fill in the voids creating the transition between the green landscape and the house. The two individual bathrooms have been treated in a distinct masculine and feminine style. Yellow, white and glass for the feminine feel whereas grey, black & ochre with white cedar wood for the male.