ArchiCulture Studio was given a great opportunity to design a house situated just a few miles from the Taj Mahal, one of greatest architectural Wonders of the Medieval World, in Agra, India.
The manager of Old World Classics, an oriental rug company from New York, makes numerous trips a year to their rug-making factory in Agra. With his local partner who manages the plant, they decided to build a residence on top of the manufacturing facility to accommodate himself, business partners and other rug dealers while visiting the premises.
[ Click images to enlarge ... ]
Now in construction, the architecture is intended to enhance the suburban area while establishing new relationships to the historic context. Extensive research about the local architecture and trips to the field were made in order to better understand the culture and to integrate the house into this world heritage site using environmentally sensitive solutions. The house is designed to be site-specific with a timeless presence that is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.
Although the original blueprints for the single-story factory never anticipated a residential addition, new construction was successfully integrated by extending and building on top of the existing column grid. A change in the height of the existing concrete slab was used to create a split-level layout, which resulted in a pleasant and playful circulation throughout the house. Having the perimeter pre-determined by the footprint of the existing structure, a new layout was organized in a simple yet effective way: an entrance foyer, 2 rooms with bathrooms, a living room, dining area and kitchen with a built-in dumbwaiter elevator for transporting the meals to the roof for outdoor dining alongside a planted terrace.
Arched windows provide a framed view from the rooms to the fields beyond and also overlook the loom facility’s courtyard, while maintaining the privacy of the interior spaces.
An additional floor was added by the client to take advantage of unobstructed, spectacular panoramic views of the landscape and the Taj Mahal.
The overall design of the house respects the existing scale and immediate context, and compliments the enclosed factory area by carefully balancing the traditional and new into a simple and unified expression.
[ Click drawings to enlarge ... ]
 1st Floor Plan |
 2nd Floor Plan |
 Roof Plan |
 Section |
 South Elevation |
 East Elevation West Elevation |
 North Elevation |
| >> To view carpets we designed for Old World Classics, please see Carpet Design in our Product Design section. >> To view and order photos from our trip to India, please see Places album in our Photography section. |
