Shrugging aside the norm for siting a structure on a plot, Khosla Associates have located this inward-facing house near the boundary wall abutting a street in Bengaluru, while efficiently maintaining privacy, light and vistas on the inside of the home. Instead of locating the bungalow as far away from the road as possible, Sandeep Khosla and Amaresh Anand have turned this tried and tested solution on its head. What they have dubbed L-Plan House, because of its shape, hugs the boundary wall of the plot on the side closest to the road, but turns its back on the comings and goings outside, by facing the vista of green which unfurls on its inside.
The clients asked for a compact house which maximises light and air. But this turned out to be a challenge for the architects, because privacy from the street had to be maintained, without compromising on any other essentials. The solution to this dilemma was to create two different faces for the house – an introverted exterior facing the street, and an extroverted interior elevation facing the open space in the west and north. The street facing massing is more opaque, while the garden facing elevations provide transparency and views.
