This house in Auroville best describes Dominic Dube’s architectural philosophy of purity and simplicity in design. Dominic translated the client’s minimal lifestyle need for solitude and close contact with nature to create a form that seamlessly amalgamates these requirements through its volume, proportion and ingenuity in planning. The plan came about as an abstraction of the super imposition of two grids - the physical spatial grid of 3.39 m with the structural grid. The ground floor plan then takes further shape by the two curves that define the overall form in plan. At the junction of these curves is the lotus pond and the Corbusier like spiral staircase that form the focus for the ground floor open plan. The structure although monumental in volume externally is a sculpted space that has to be experienced. Austerity in materials and the flow of the plan allow the exterior to flow into the interior. The structure exemplifies DDIR Architecture’s design philosophy to convey more through less, to reach the maximum through the minimum and to give everything through nothing.
