The Lakehouse designed by CollectiveProject in Hyderabad is a weekend house, overlooking a water basin in the outskirts of the Indian metropolis. Following a sensible and common configuration, the three volumes that the residence is comprised of are laid out on their sloping lot so at to minimize infills and excavations. They are all shaped as telescopes, their short sides entirely glazed in order to frame the lake and the city.
Hyderabad’s skyline, though, is arguably not amongst the most impressive or enticing, at least in the portion which is visible from CollectiveProject’s building. This is why it is worth to describe the Lakehouse not as much as a device for the contemplation of the urban landscape, but rather as a sequence of two domestic landscapes in their own right.
Towards the road, a lush garden surrounds the compact stone-clad blocks, showing virtually no openings, and elegantly decorated by even sequences of pilasters. The vegetation’s organic shade effects and the building’s abstract, geometric chiaroscuro overlap and contrast on the house’s elevations.
Once crossed the entrance threshold, the relation between architecture and nature is quickly reversed. The extensive use of teakwood in the Lakehouse acts as a counterpoint to the dry, barren hillside. The large terraces, also equipped with a pool, are comfortable platforms overhanging an hostile land. More than a belvedere on the city, they are an exclusive space which has the privilege to keep a physical and critical setback from it.
- Project:
- Lakehouse
- Program:
- weekend house
- Location:
- Hyderabad, India
- Architects:
- CollectiveProject
- Team CollectiveProject:
- Cyrus Patell, Eliza Higgins, Divya Shetty, Amandine Romanet
- Area:
- 353 sqm
- Completion:
- 2019