A house near Goa, nestled around an enclosed garden

In the village of Salvador do Mundo, north of Goa, the wild natural environment and tropical climatic conditions, with a monsoon season lasting six months, determine the characteristics of the built space and the habits of its inhabitants. In this context, the young Indian studio Field Atelier has created a house that, on the one hand, embodies the archetypal vocation of architecture as a shelter from external agents and, on the other, as a place of intimacy and domestic relations that unfolds around common areas and open spaces.

The building sits on a steeply sloping terrain, surrounded by dense vegetation to the south-west and sloping to the north-east towards the access road. An external staircase that unravels among the land retaining walls and vegetation leads to the main floor, where the living area is located. At the entrance, a pool paved in dark tiles evokes a subtle anxiety in not perceiving its depth (and perhaps also what is inside the house), still dialoguing with the open-air reception and distribution space: around this hortus conclusus, bordered by enclosure walls and invisible from the street, the living room, dining area and a bedroom (on the ground floor), and two bedrooms and the study (on the upper floor) are arranged.

The simple, functional layout articulated around the outdoor patio, from which natural light and ventilation filter generously, is transposed into essential elevations characterised by immaculate volumes which, amidst recesses and directed views, project the gaze onto the quiet domestic landscape inside and the woodland at the back, outside. A composed and shady aura characterises the interiors, dominated by the earthy tones of the floors, walls, and textiles, and by furnishings and fixtures in rough wood with a monastic feel, evoking a demand for privacy and introspection as essential conditions of dwelling.