“`html
Villa Prakriti: A Biophilic Farmhouse in the Sahyadri Mountains by unTAG Studio
Category: Residential Design
Introduction: Architecture Rooted in Nature
Amid the forested slopes of the Sahyadri Mountains in Western India lies Villa Prakriti, a contemporary farmhouse designed by unTAG Studio that exemplifies biophilic design principles in residential architecture. Located near Igatpuri in Maharashtra, this four-bedroom home merges form, material, and landscape to foster a profound sensory and ecological connection between its occupants and the surrounding natural environment.
Drawing inspiration from both vernacular Indian farmhouses and universal passive strategies found in rural homes across the globe, Villa Prakriti stands as a benchmark of how thoughtful integration with topography, climate, and culture can result in human-centric, sustainable residential design.
Responding to Place: Site-Specific Design in the Sahyadris
The Sahyadri range—part of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage site—is known for its lush biodiversity, monsoonal climate, and rugged terrain. Unlike many contemporary homes that are imposed upon the landscape, Villa Prakriti follows the natural contours of the site. Its layout minimizes earthwork, showing sensitivity to both local ecology and viewsheds.
This site-responsive orientation not only reduces environmental impact but also creates an architecture that feels embedded in its environment, visually and experientially tethered to its context.
Biophilic Strategies: Designing for Human-Nature Connection
1. Passive Solar Form and Orientation
The built volume of Villa Prakriti is topped by two sloping clay-tile roofs with deep overhangs, a passive design strategy that serves multiple functions. The eaves shade verandahs and balconies from the intense tropical sun while allowing diffused daylight into interior spaces. These shading elements also provide refuge during the region’s heavy monsoon rains, reinforcing verandahs as transition spaces that mediate indoor and outdoor environments.
2. Cross-Ventilation and Thermal Comfort
The building’s fenestration has been consciously placed to promote natural cross-ventilation, enhancing air circulation and reducing dependence on mechanical systems. This is complemented by the use of materials with high thermal mass—like locally sourced brick and Shahabad stone—which help regulate indoor temperatures, especially during the region’s warm, humid summers.
3. Material Authenticity and Local Sourcing
- Local Brick: Used extensively for walls, this material provides warmth, texture, and insulation while rooting the design in regional vernacular.
- Shahabad Stone: A durable, regionally available stone that offers a cool feel underfoot, it’s laid in various patterns that echo local craft traditions.
- Clay Tile Roof: Not only reminiscent of traditional Indian farmhouses, clay tiles also enhance passive cooling by allowing hot air to escape through their natural air gaps.
- Brick Jaalis: Perforated brick screens both shade and ventilate while bringing filtered light into interiors and maintaining visual connection with the outside.
4. Landscaping as Design Partner
A unique aspect of Villa Prakriti is the intertwining of landscape and architecture. Rather than clearing the surrounding forest, the design encourages its return. The building’s form creates courtyards, view corridors, and breezeways that allow native vegetation to re-establish itself. Over time, the house will seem to dissolve into the landscape, restoring ecological memory and biodiversity.
5. Sensory Biophilia
In addition to the visual, the house evokes olfactory and auditory connections to nature. Fragrant flora, the songs of local birds, and the rhythmic monsoon rains on the clay tile roofs make the natural world constantly present to the inhabitant. Such multi-sensory engagement deepens a resident’s psychological and physiological well-being, aligning with documented benefits of biophilic exposure.
Rooted in Vernacular and Global Tradition
The architectural language of Villa Prakriti references the vernacular farmsteads of the Deccan plateau and Western Ghats. Thick walls, shaded verandahs, and simple, cost-effective construction methods are shared hallmarks of traditional Indian rural homes, where climate responsiveness was a cultural necessity.
These passive strategies hold universal resonance. In North America, homes in the Hudson Valley or the Pacific Northwest use timber or stone construction, orient big windows toward sun and views, and integrate porches that mediate indoor-outdoor life. Australian bush retreats apply similar language with deep verandas, metal or terracotta roofs, and elevated decks to reduce ecological footprint. In Mediterranean Europe, traditional villas use thick masonry for insulation and multilevel outdoor terraces for seasonal adaptation.
Villa Prakriti converses with all of these traditions, offering a regional interpretation of a global design ethic: the idea that thoughtful, place-sensitive architecture can bring human inhabitants into ethical and emotional alliance with the land.
Technical and Spatial Specifications
- Program: Four-bedroom farmhouse residence
- Architect: unTAG Studio
- Location: Igatpuri region, Sahyadri Mountains, India
- Structural System: Load-bearing masonry walls using local brick, timber-framed pitched roofs
- Roof Design: Dual sloped clay tile roofs with extensive overhangs for shade and rain protection
- Floor Finish: Shahabad stone arranged in local patterns
- Envelope Strategy: Cross-ventilated with transition spaces (verandahs and balconies) that modulate climate
- Shading Features: Brick jaali screens for light modulation and visual permeability
- Ecological Design: Local material sourcing, forest-integrated site planning, and low ecological footprint
Lessons for Architects and Homeowners
Villa Prakriti offers critical insights into the enduring relevance of passive, biophilic design for residential architecture. Whether you’re an architect designing a new home in a coastal Californian canyon, a rural Australian plateau, or a meadow in Tuscany, several foundational principles stand out:
1. Rethink the Divide Between Architecture and Nature
Integrate landscape from the beginning. Design with the topography, not against it, and allow your building to support ecological continuity instead of replace it.
2. Choose Tactile, Local Materials
The textures, scents, and thermal behavior of materials like clay tile, stone, and brick contribute significantly to comfort and atmosphere. Choose materials that “belong” to the region—not only aesthetically but tectonically.
3. Harness Passive Design for Comfort and Sustainability
Use orientation, shading, thermal mass, and ventilation to dramatically reduce dependence on artificial systems. Small interventions—like jaalis or verandahs—offer huge microclimatic benefits.
4. Treat Sensory Experience as a Design Input
Biophilia isn’t only about views of green. It’s about multi-sensory engagement: hearing birdsong through open windows, touching cool stone, smelling earth after rain. These experiences make a house feel alive.
5. Use Vernacular as a Starting Point, Not a Limit
Traditional rural architecture has already solved many climate-related challenges. Adapting these ideas using modern materials and standards equips us to design more sustainable and culturally relevant buildings.
Conclusion: A Living Laboratory of Biophilic Living
Villa Prakriti is far more than a residence. It is a living laboratory for biophilic design, one grounded in the ecological and cultural context of the Sahyadris, yet resonant with traditions across continents. For architects seeking to create homes that heal, adapt, and inspire, this project by unTAG Studio demonstrates how the simple, conscious choices of orientation, material, and landscape integration can result in homes that simultaneously serve the planet and the soul.
Through its contextual sensitivity, material intelligence, and immersive sensory qualities, Villa Prakriti invites us to reimagine the home not just as a shelter, but as a catalyst for restoring our relationship with nature.
“`
Leave a Reply