The house in Jaipur presented us with an opportunity to explore and evolve a method of building that has been prevalent in traditional buildings for centuries. We laid out a simple brief: no material other than stone should be used for construction.

This made us dive deeply into the art of 'making' with stone.

Rajasthan is synonymous with sandstone as a building material but sadly, over the last few decades, this material has been reduced to a 'cladding' medium and its potential as a robust and sustainable structural element has not been explored. This made us dive deeply into the art of 'making' with stone.

The traditional method of load bearing construction relied on the impermeable thickness of walls. This was reengineered to develop a hollow interlocking structural wall system that creates a more effective thermal break, provides space to integrate services within the wall cavity, and effectively reduces the material consumption by 30%.

Floor systems alternate between vaults and large single span stone pieces. Every building element from the basement raft/ retaining walls/ lintels/ door and window jambs/ reveals/ stairs/ screens etc has been made from stone blocks, either from the quarry ( superstructure elements) or excavated from the site ( substructure elements).

The house is arranged around a narrow courtyard that extends into even narrower slits and fissures as it weaves its way through the house, essentially drawing on the proportions of voids and interstitial spaces of traditional dwellings as a method to counter the effect of the harsh summer sun.

Large front and rear facing glazing is shaded by deep overhangs and operable, hand-cut stone screens to modulate light, privacy, and views.

House of Solid Stone

  • Veer Vijay Singh
  • Hanuman Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan
  • 4700 sq.ft
  • 8000 sq.ft.
  • Completion 2019
  • Kamal Malik, Arjun Malik, Ketan Chaudhary, Payal Hundiwala, Soumya Shukla, Neha Kotian
  • Fabian Charuau, Bharath Ramamrutham

Consultants

  • GES - Global Engineering Services
  • GES - Global Engineering Services
  • GES - Global Engineering Services
  • Coolair System- Daikin
  • Mungekar and Associates
  • Malik Architecture

Contractors

  • Angira Interiors– Naresh Suthar
  • Angira Interiors– Naresh Suthar
  • Angira Interiors– Naresh Suthar
  • Coolair System – Javed Shaikh
  • Angira Interiors– Naresh Suthar
  • Vespl-Vora electric service
  • Angira Interiors– Naresh Suthar