hinge – July 2019

hinge 275_36

<QSPKFDU
GJMF
°
JOEJB>

Pohegaon, Maharashtra, India

Atelier Shantanu Autade

Assembly and Rural House Form

Photography by Rajeshwar Singh or Tanishq Ostwal

With a mandate to create a rural shelter for agricultural goods and humans,

Atelier Shantanu Autade got to work analysing precedents and indigenous

typologies in the region, as well as more recent climatic trends and needs. The

result is a modest and economical building that answers basic requirements

but also allows for local and varied interpretations after the fact. Realised in

rough concrete, steel and corrugated metal, the shelter sets out a symmetrical

plan under a shed roof supported by box-beams. This is the kind of construction

that is ubiquitous and quick, with low maintenance requirements and low-skilled

labour knowing all that’s necessary to erect it.

The building is a narrow rectangle with a roof that overhangs for shade. It

is open through its middle segment for cross breezes, while both ends are

wrapped in concrete walls for privacy. In the open crossing at its middle, a

concrete pavilion sits, dividing the two halves of the shelter and offering an

ever-so-slightly heightened formalism to the elevations and plan. The steeply

angled shed roof covers the central half of the building, leaving the walled-

in end rooms as small courtyard spaces open to the sky and planted as

miniature gardens. The roof rests upon a black steel structure that seems

inserted into the concrete shell, with mesh infill to allow closure. A simple

slab extension aligned with the central bay acts like a porch overlooking the

adjacent field of crops. You could sit there protected from sun or rain.

That’s all there is to it. For local meetings, or short-term refuge from work

or weather, the building is just what’s needed, and nothing else. But clearly

it takes one step further, because its principal design attributes are ruled

by motives of aesthetics; it looks calm, and timeless and, well, noble. If

doing that with as lean a palette and budget as this project had seems a

stretch, then this becomes a lesson worth learning.