Casa de Silva

Architects: Iconcast Chartered Architects
Design Team: Gihan Muthugala & Nilooshi Eleperuma
Location: Malabe, Sri Lanka
Area: 4,600 ft²
Project Year: 2021
Structural Engineers: Wasantha Pushpa Kumara
Photographer: Ganidu Balasuriya Photography

The site is a 19 perch land located in a residential suburb of Colombo. Despite its vicinity to green paddy fields; three sides of the site were contained by two storied houses and the access road was on the west face.

This was to become the home for a young family with working parents; both the owners drive to Colombo for work from their home at Malabe; and from the onset they wanted an extent of privacy that would still allow them to enjoy the outdoors. The site offered no direction to open the house out to yet its shape and size lent itself to the idea of a courtyard house.

Focused on what one really needs to live comfortably in the tropics; the design prioritized response to the climate of location and the family needs at the time.

The building mass was placed standalone on site; isolated from boundaries; retaining an individuality. And punctured the mass with an outdoor volume; maintaining a single bay depth at all times from in to out. This enabled the interiors of the home with what you really need to live comfortably in the tropics; natural ventilation, day light illumination, passively conditioned thermal comfort and interaction with vegetation inside the home.

The design of this home is made sensitive and sympathetic to the enjoyment of outdoor space articulating a private outdoor space enjoyed simultaneous to one’s daily chores. It carries a healthy environmental psychology of a self-sustained vegetative aesthetic; to look within one’s own garden and up at the sky.

At ground level the site is planned in two zones; the ‘Living’ and the ‘Services’. The compact and effective service areas were stacked against the straight south boundary, directly accessible from the road with a gate. This released the remaining ground level space for the living areas on the courtyard surround to enjoy the outdoors, creating garden spaces along the angular edges of site.

The western entry to the house and carpark at ground level are deeply recessed.On the upper level; a double skin west façade on the roadside with an external timber screen that filters the west sun to cut down heat gain during the day allows visibility from inside to the road with internal glass pivot panels that keep the rain out leaving opportunity for natural cross ventilation on sunny days.

Sight lines are considered important. The courtyard perimeter is designed in exclusion of visible columns or beams for greater permeability and engagement with surrounding spaces and in turn the family through the courtyard. The central open to sky volume is resourcefully planned so the Living spills over for additional space for guest entertainment at ground level effortlessly switching from a passive everyday mode to an event mode enabling lifestyle flexibility for the family. The regular reinforced concrete column, beam frame entertains large spans; slab soffits are designed with upstand beams managing levels of the roof terrace for planting and drainage while the lower level enclosures are wall on wall discretely incorporating the structure and plumbing; minimizing ceilings; arriving at a clean and continuous soffit plane forming a minimal space.

The central open to sky volume promotes natural stack ventilation throughout the year directing the breeze though the single bay larger volumes of common space; minimizing the energy consumption on a day to day basis with passively conditioned thermal comfort. The ample vegetation from the garden surround and courtyard add evaporative cooling to the stack cycle. The opening at the double height slab level is comparatively small conscious of the wet footprint below; creating deep shade for internal space; the courtyard vegetation aids sun control with the pleasure of dappled light and shadows walking the walls throughout the day.

This house around a courtyard respectfully re-thinks; the spatial relationships of the typical Sri Lankan Courtyard House; the design explores the courtyard as a multi-level spatial asset used to connect and form relationships between the different internal activities through spatial and non-spatial consumption. We explored the conversion of ground level circulation corridors surrounding the conventional courtyard to the vertical circulation of the staircase engaging with the double height courtyard while protecting the essential utility of the staircase from the intrusion of tropical rain. The program for this courtyard space is organized on both the horizontal and vertical planes. This interaction forms a new paradigm with mobility between floor levels, the volume and level play inside the home allows for variant views of and through the courtyard from the difference spaces while the inhabitants engage in varying activities. This simple spatial formation allows for an active remake of user engagement.