Bellary House is located in the small town of the same name, in the heart of India, known for its iron mines, historical ruins, and its hot and dry climate. The house is situated in one of the neighborhoods undergoing a slow but steady transformation, where old modest houses are making way for modern villas.
Bellary House is designed by the architects of the Gaurav Roy Choudhury studio, specialized in innovative architectural projects, in order to keep away the external heat and create a convective microclimate by allowing the entry of cool air currents. The prefabricated cement outer walls wrap the house with a protective gesture and are punctuated only by small, massive glass windows.
The designers have created a raised garden in the northeast corner of the villa: it becomes the generator of the microclimate of Bellary House.
It is from the shade of its plants that fresh air currents are created, which flow through the house, as well as the light that reflects inside the house from its surfaces.
The villa is filled with generous and simple energy, that of the family living in it, composed of a couple with two children and grandparents who often visit.
The spatial concept of the house was to distribute the living experience along the entire length of the lot, like a journey through the joyful memories of family living. This length is opened up by lowering the eastern half of the house. The raised garden, the master bedroom, and the kitchen align from north to south along this length with a bedroom reaching the southern end of the mezzanine.
The open kitchen is an element that breaks some traditional notions, such as the identification of the kitchen as a place where women are confined.
The mezzanine becomes the catalyst in the development of the spaces in this house: it hovers between the long and open living room on the ground floor and the private bedrooms on the first floor. The bedroom on the loft is specially designed to 'keep an eye' on the elderly grandparents, hosted in the bedroom on the ground floor, through a small courtyard that also serves as their 'private' garden, a source of light, and a secluded place for prayer.
