PA N A R O M A H O U S E >

Nashik, Maharashtra
4000 sqft [2014 – 2015]

A cuboid frame of concrete, the Panorama House sculpturally

intensifies a wondrous landscape and is manoeuvred

to cultivate an absolute approach to a way of life, and

influences from Modern Masters.

An enticing countryside setting enveloped by the rising

Sahyadri Range stretches out tranquilly around the beautiful

backwaters of Gangapur dam in the Gangavare region of

Nashik. A location that brings to life the dramatis personae

of the Panorama House designed by Ajay Sonar of A For

Architecture, tailored to the aspirations of his client of ‘a

simple yet iconic house’. “With such a context,” mentions the

architect, “the intention could not have been simpler than to

create a space that simply frames the idyllic image and to

behold the magnificent plays of weathers and seasons that

animate that picture-perfect view.”

A FOR ARCHITECTURE, NASHIK

Principal Architect:
Ajay Sonar
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A pathway through the undulating landscape announces the arrival Obliquely set in the heart of a linear site, the residence
to the house located in the heart of the site.
commands a powerful horizontality finding synergies

with the natural landscape in its open-ness. Grassy knolls

from the southern quarter along a pathway, part along the

plateaued site of one acre to reveal a low-slung two storey

concrete frame construct. Indicatively, it forms a nexus from

which the landscape seemingly radiates, inching towards the

flowing waters and slopes gently upwards towards the hills.

SITE PLAN
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Of the more visually perceptible, is the syntax that pares

the design to its bare essentials – to a grid of slender steel

columns capped by a cantilevered concrete cubical frame

that extends on all sides. Consequently, the footprint is

minimal. Not taking away from the focus on the landscape,

the essence of its making is seemingly derived from, as the

architect puts it, ‘a sort of a strange co-existence of heaviness

and slenderness-more like, Corbusier marrying Mies to create

a unique sub-tropical house type.

AXONOMETRIC VIEW
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FRONT ELEVATION

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECTION THROUGH DINING LOOKING TOWARDS THE NORTH

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

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A simple cuboid framework supported by slender steel columns
defines the ‘Miesian’ approach that the design takes.
Limited within this planning of 400sqm, the range and
scale of programmatic spaces expands to accommodate a
Living Room approached by a short flight of stairs from the
landscape, Dining and two bedrooms on the first floor and
a lounge and another bedroom on the floor resting on a
platform below. The services are discreetly organised within
two boxed enclosures, not dividing the space but allowing
for an uninhibited ambulatory spine around the spaces. The
furnishings are mute in tints of black and brown eclipsing a
polished cement floor, counter-balanced by the richer green-
blue of the unfolding vistas beyond.
A verandah shaded by the cantilevered cube invites the visitor into the
living spaces.
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The entire functionality seems orchestrated to look out to
the landscape at an eye-level. In essence, within a pavilion-
like construct, the open-ness is posited by the instances
introduced in the design; spacious rooms that step out into
balconies, even made possible on the base floor by the
cantilevered edges above, a lounge flanked at the outset by
a swimming pool in the courtyard, and full-height sliding
windows that catch and compose fragments of the changing
light and breeze.
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Above: In contrast to the permeable spaces otherwise, the services are

Through extremely simple means, the house engenders
The residence extends visually to the natural surroundings
redacted in boxed enclosures. on all sides. a quality of restraint. It is underpinned by the architect’s

purpose when the emphasis is that, “This house designed by

Previous page: The pool in the outer courtyard on the base floor.
us incorporates only three materials in a vow to maintain
the purity of space and also as a critical stand opposed to

the current trends of using almost infinite number of false

materials and artificial finishes whereas we have achieved all

of this in a single RCC slab, right from the ceiling pattern at

the bottom to polished concrete floor on top.”

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The pool in the outer courtyard on the base floor. The
monochromatic intendment is derived as a single RCC slab frame.
The tint in the concrete is achieved to complement the coloration
of the soil.
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The private interior areas.
Equivocally, this particular thought characterises its virtue
and its challenges. What it sought to achieve was an
influence of modernity, a non-intervention in the natural
surroundings and as a means to that end, to ensure a
detailed execution of the skeletal frame to its truest form
without ‘additional layering of materials.’
A relief for its starkness is found in pigmented concrete
that is used. Not only does it tune the colour aesthetically,
it orchestrates a reciprocal relationship with the context -
to harmonise hues with the very soil and mountains it is
embedded in.
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The austerity and qualitative ease of its construction relies on the

A sense of geometry prevails and the simplicity is striking.
simplicity of the design it is crafted with. In its proportions, one can glimpse the absolute allure of

Mies’ and Corbusier’s influence. In the practice of restraint, it

speaks then about not just the way of architecture but how
it influences interactions with the lifestyle of its residents

and nature. Each moment of its composition revels in

the generously endowed lightness and transparency of

the details, and of the appreciable connectivity with the

landscape, immediate and distant.

It is an expression of how, the architects believe, ‘As a child,

everyone cherishes memories of drawing the sun rising from

two mountains and reflections of it in water and birds soaring

in the sky. We thus,” they say, “make an effort to frame these

prized moments towards infinity.”

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Product & Material Applications

Windows > Jindal – Nilesh Jain

Sanitaryware & Bath Fittings > Jaquar

Hardware > Hettich

Veneer > Greenply – Plywood Corporation

Stone > Granite – tNilkamal

Air Conditioning > Blue Star

Key Contributors

Structural Design > The Axis Structural Consultants

Civil Contractor > Ketan Patwa

Landscape Design > Ajay Date

HVAC Consultants > Manoj Yeole

Photography Credits

Hemant Patil