ALIBAG HOUSE

BY – NARI GANDHI
NARIMAN DOSSABHAI GANDHI

▪ ARCHITECT NAME : Nariman Dossabhai Gandhi

▪ BORN YEAR : 1934
▪ Born in to a Parsi family in Bombay, Nariman Dossabhai Gandhi left the Sir JJ
College of Architecture in the mid-1950s without completing the course, and went
instead to apprentice with Frank Lloyd Wright as a Taliesin Fellow, spending most
of his four years there in the gardens, growing the perfect strawberry for Wright, or
splitting stones at a nearby quarry, rather than in the drafting hall.
▪ After Wright’s death, Nari went on to study pottery at the Kent State University
before returning to India in 1960, where he completed some 20 projects over 30
years until his own tragic death in a car accident while visiting a site.
▪ Organic Architecture, a term coined by Wright to express his philosophy, calls for
design that “grows out of the site” and form that is “determined by way of the
nature of materials
THE ALIBAG HOUSE

LOCATION : KORLAI VILLAGE, REVDANDA ,

MAHARASHTRA.

CONTEXT : KORLAI is a village , 20 kilometers to the south of

ALIBAG.

“Arriving at the beach, we turn onto a road that runs

along it, and there, half-hidden behind a cluster of
other buildings, is the unmistakable peak of a roof that,
though dressed in the same clay tiles as its neighbors,
stands a metaphorical mile apart, and a head above”
 HIERARCHY OF SPACES

▪ The house is staged on an elevated platform, a

beached boat of brick, with sandstone paving
below, echoing the beach behind.
▪ Later ,leading through a ribbed underbelly of
archways and flying buttresses, past twin
submersible-like bedrooms tucked into the
landscape, and onto a sea of lawn at the far
end.
▪ Basically , an elevated open arched pavilion
facing the sea.
▪ The lower levels of the pavilion contained
A sinuous frame lifts this Alibag house , above street service spaces, bedrooms, and kitchen areas,
level, carving two parking bays below, with the third whereas the upper level dining and living areas
accommodating a guest room. This portal links the have spectacular views of the sea.
beachside entrance to a private garden behind
 HIERARCHY OF SPACES

A repeated footsteps— directs

movement along a gently
modulated slope to the ‘upper’ deck.
Framed by soaring segmental arches
on either side, this primary space
opens to vistas of shores both real
and conceived; the filigree of voids
that punctuate the masonry screens
above produce a play of light from
dawn to dusk. From here, one flight
of cantilevered stone steps leads up
to the crow’s-nest vantage of a
wooden loft, while another spirals
down to the kitchen, back to the
carport and out to the main gate. A gently ascending series of landscaped
terraces lead onto an elevated deck, belying
the fact that one has climbed an entire
floor. The living and dining spaces housed
here open in all directions, commanding
Flying buttresses prop a balcony overlooking views of the gardens and coast from this
the public thoroughfare. Alibag house.
 An arched doorway, panelled in strips of recycled
glass, funnels diffused light into the guest room of
this Alibag house, while opening to scenes of the
village road and the beach beyond. An arch clad in
stone-flake stucco breaks the monopoly of brick

A flight of stairs seems to shed weight as it ascends from the

sun-bleached deck, until it’s nothing more than a slab of stone
projecting from the adjacent arch, ending in a floating cabin-like
daybed room that occupies the highest position of this Alibag
 The view from one of two similarly vaulted bedrooms is
Sandstone bleachers rise from the garden onto a large focused on the garden outside. A cast of bricks finds
deck, revealing the spectacular expanse of the Arabian expression in various roles: ceiling, floor, bed and ledge.
Sea. The built-in seats double as a walkway and gradually distinct joint discloses an extension, as does the change
transform into a few tentative steps and finally a full flight in flooring from mosaic tiles to brick
of stair .
The roof of this Alibag house drops dramatically half-domical kitchen and bar,
then rises again as a dormer, lending the sunken tucked into a corner of the
dining area an intimate scale. A herringbone- building, is largely illuminated
patterned ceiling creates an illusion of depth, by a concealed skylight. A
lightening its extensive surface. The cut-out in the spiral service staircase hidden
foreground opens onto the kitchen below behind the archway to the
right connects the space to
the dining room above
BUILDING MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES

▪ The house was built some 30 years ago, the roof was made of woven coconut thatch, the now repainted
bricks were their original colour, and the landscape was sand.

▪ Country bricks for the heavier base, but above he employed hollow, machine-moulded bricks, using
their capacity for reinforcement to create forms that seem to defy gravity.

▪ Two parallel arches form the structural frame of the pavilion and support the large pitched roof.
Constructed first, these arches are also braced with flying buttresses and are loaded with walls on either
side to bear the thrust of the arch. These brick (wire-cut hollow brick) walls have punctures that were
later filled with stained glass

▪ The house originally had a thatched roof, since replaced with a Mangalore tiled roof with wooden
battens on the inner side. The architect also designed specific furniture for the bungalow,
including chairs with differing leg lengths for the sunken-level dining area.

▪ Trees jut out from the house as if rooted in it, juxtaposed against the brick walls. The lower-level
bedrooms have vaulted (apparently based on a triangular geometry) ceilings.
THANK YOU

PRESENTED BY –
Payal
Tejaswini C
Lavnish
Sanika
Vaishnavi pawar
Spandana