Kiln House
A house built from the earth it stands on, fired two kilometres away.
A-201 · Perspective from the north-east · massing only
- Programme
- Private residence
- Floor area
- 288 m²
- Height to parapet
- 8.40 m
- Storeys
- 2
- Structural bays
- 5
- Status
- Built · 2024
The client wanted one room that could hold forty people at a wedding and two people on an ordinary Tuesday. Everything else follows from that room.
We set a load-bearing brick grid at 3.6 metres and let it run the full depth of the plot. Between the piers, the walls thin to a single wythe and open into deep reveals — the thickness does the shading, so no screen was needed on the west face.
Bricks came from a kiln on the Bhuj–Mandvi road. Firing variation was not corrected; it is the only pattern on the building.
Team
Ira Menon
Design lead
Devang Shah
Project architect
Bhatt & Rao Consulting
Structure
Rann Build
Contractor
Materials
Furthest: Mangalore roof tile — 184 km
How it went
- March 2022
First site visit. The plot had one neem tree and a well.
- August 2022
Drawing set issued. Brick sample panel approved by touch.
- November 2022
Foundations. The well was kept and now feeds the garden.
- May 2024
Handover, nineteen months on site.