Courtyard House, Sarjapur Road — Thirty Ninety Four Studios

The brief was a house for three generations on a corner plot that faced west and traffic. Instead of pushing rooms to the boundary and closing the house with curtains, we pulled the plan inward. A seven-metre court sits at the centre; the living room, dining, kitchen and the grandparents' bedroom all open onto it. The road gets a quiet, mostly blank face of exposed laterite; the family gets a garden no one outside can see.

Bengaluru's climate rewards this. For most of the year the court works as the house's lung, pulling warm air up and out while shaded verandas stay comfortable without air-conditioning. In the monsoon the water falling into the court is channelled to a 15,000-litre sump, enough to cover the garden and the household's non-potable needs through the dry months.

Materials were chosen to age well and to be found within a day's drive: laterite from Malur, Sadarahalli grey granite for sills and steps, teak reclaimed from a demolished Basavanagudi house for the main door and the stair. Inside, the palette narrows to lime-washed walls, Kota stone and oak, so the garden remains the only colour that matters.

Location: Sarjapur Road, Bengaluru
Typology: Residential
Area: 4,200 sq ft built-up on a 40 × 60 plot
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Scope: Architecture, interiors, landscape

Single-storey timber and glass house under a large tree in daylight — The court from the first-floor bridge, with the rain tree the house was planned around

House exterior at night with warm light spilling from the windows onto a stone wall — Evening: the laterite street wall and the lit entry

Bright living room with a timber feature wall and sliding glass doors open to a garden — Living room opening fully to the court

Timber staircase with a slim black metal handrail in a white double-height space — The stair in reclaimed teak and black mild steel

Courtyard House

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