Veranda on the roof

Located on the roof of a 12 storey building of a duplex apartment in Pune, India, this space was conceptualized as a ‘Veranda’. (Hindi meaning: A transitional space between public and private area or, between a house and a street). A concept, which conjures up an image of a welcoming social space meant for all.

Traditionally, verandas have always been an integral part of our homes. However, in recent years, to a certain degree forgotten and disappeared. A veranda was always an element, central to making our houses into homes, an accidental space for long conversations, a place for one to relax and unwind. Hence, this veranda houses a library and a pantry, which extend into a terrace, or in other words, parts of terrace which are covered to accommodate a reading nook and a pantry.

  The design intends a play on the senses as one approaches the place through a wooden staircase from the living room below. The existing walls of the staircase were broken down and roof was created to open up the space and get better connection. This enabled us to make the Veranda into an extension to the main house below while allowing the two levels to engage in a dialogue. Bold earthy undertones of the cement textured walls and Teak wood furniture are used to set the tone of this space. The roof library overlooks the terrace garden through a wooden glass paneled facade, which gives a notion of an enclosure that can open up completely, blurring the boundaries of the inside from the outside. This uniformity of space is accentuated by the use of natural materials like cement plaster, teak wood, granite stone and brass metal which span inside as well as outside. The hand movement imprints on the cement plaster constantly give a sense of tactility of the process that has undergone to make its architecture.

The low-on-clutter, minimal furniture allows for easy movement. The library unit is designed to be understated in its form so as to consciously reduce its visual impact. A metal staircase hung from stainless steel wires on one end and anchored to a wooden beam on the other leads to a store room above. Here, the treads are designed in a way, so as to perfectly align with the shelves of the library unit. Similarly, a lot of elements such as the door handle, door stopper, tower bolts, drawer handles are custom designed to follow this language with the notion to fade away.

The fully equipped pantry on the terrace continues to have the same language where the thrilling idea of cooking outdoors is explored. Walking on the gravel produces a sound which triggers the memory of being in the outdoors. The gravel floor is used in parts across the terrace to heighten this tangibility. A reading nook, which sits along the water fall and a lotus pond within it, is a tranquil setting to indulge into a piece of literature with the garden partly screening it.

Veranda on the roof, Sopan Baug, Pune, India
Program: extension
Architect: Studio Course, principal architect Kalpak Shah
Area: 50 sqm
Completion: 2017