The Playhouse

Meethi-Mishti nu Maati Ghar in Ahmedabad was conceived and created by SferaBlu Architects for two young girls. This eco-conscious home is crafted as per their fancies and appeals to their sensitivities.   

Curated by: Deepa Nair
Photographs: Umang Shah; courtesy SferaBlu Architects

Architect Naman Shah

The brief

Naman Shah, principal architect of SferaBlu Architects and his team received the brief for this home in Ahmedabad from an unusual duo — two young girls, Meethi (three years) and Mishti (nine years). Besides creating the home according to the fantasies, it was to be eco-friendly ensuring a minimal carbon footprint — with a focus on local materials and techniques, upcycling and recycling. The residence has a large living room with a porch opening towards the garden, a dining room attached to the kitchen, storage room, a library, a secret room, a late night TV viewing room, and bedrooms with attached washrooms for the parents, children and guests.

The design intent

“The idea was to make it a play house,” explains Naman. “Since Ahmedabad gets hot in summer, we decided to bring the playground inside the house,” he adds.

The design details

The girl’s wanted a ceiling that changes, which gave way to a sloping glass for the living room ceiling. This dynamic ceiling changes with the weather, and lets you experience the outside even while inside. Meethi and Mishti can gaze and fantasize about patterns in the clouds, experience the rain which feels like a waterfall on their heads, and stare at the moon and the stars all night. This cool north light also brightens the house throughout day, reducing electrical consumption.

The fun doesn’t stop at the living room, the architects created a slide that runs parallel to the main staircase going down from the first floor! Not just Meethi and Mishti, but even adults love the idea of sliding down to the ground floor. And then the secret room came about… one that has three different entries, but each is a mystery to find. “The girls’ excitement had no bounds when we discussed a guillotine door (which only they knew how to operate), a sliding door which looks just like the partition (but is required to let the adults in to clean), and a staircase which is a part of the bookshelf on the ground floor (but is actually a staircase leading into the secret room),” says Naman.

Meethi and Mishti has an acrobatic bed in their room. A bed suspended from the ceiling, with a rope ladder going up and plenty of climbing and jumping opportunities. The bridge on the first floor ramps down to the girl’s room for an impromptu catwalk by the fashionistas.

The material palette

Since Ahmedabad gets hot in summer, the building material was taken to consideration, where the very earth becomes the house. And so, rammed earth became the technology of choice. One that uses only six to eight per cent of cement usually needed for normal construction. “In villages, people often build their houses using mud. Bringing the same idea into mainstream architecture, we built structural walls for the house by ramming earth excavated from the site itself. The earth provides thermal insulation, reducing energy consumption as well,” asserts Naman.

To add a fun element, like patterns seen in layered sand art, different natural oxides were used to create layered fluid patterns in the large monolith. The girls’ stone and shell collections, ones they had gathered over the years, were also added to the walls to preserve their fond memories.

Keeping the clients’ sensitivities in mind, most of the other material used was also locally sourced and had a low carbon footprint. Further, wood salvaged from old buildings has been treated, cut and joined skillfully to create frames, doors and windows. Specialised craftsmen were brought in to apply traditional lime plaster mixtures on the walls, toilet floors, basins and counter, to filter out toxins from the air. Regionally available stones, handmade cement tiles and lime with marble chips make up the different flooring.

The highlights

Since the internal walls are either rammed earth or lime plaster, both of which are difficult to draw on and clean, few blackboards form the partitions. These blackboards are so that children can draw and practice their homework on. The grills for the windows replicate the sketches from their drawing books. The hidden basin in the dining space is quirky. It looks just like the dining counters but lift a flap, out folds a mirror and there you have a basin.

Fact file

Project: Meethi-Mishti nu Maati Ghar (Meethi-Mishti’s Earth House)
Client: Meethi Seth and Mishti Seth
Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Area: 4,740 sq ft
Principal architect: Naman Shah
Design team: Tarjini Parikh, Binal Shah, Jasmit Bagga, Rahul Patil and Bhaumik Kadiya
Structural consultant: Innovative Designs
Landscape architect: Prabhakar B Bhagawat
Civil contractor: Shree Shreenathji Buildcon
Fabrication: Geeta Engineering Works
Furniture: Paramjitsingh Phull
Glass: Shri Rang Glass