New Typology: Rurban Townhomes

Author: Viswa Vikranth Mukala , GM Design

At Studio Organo, we constantly strive to empathize with our end users. With a vision of impacting 5000 households and getting them to embrace a healthier, environment friendly living in a rurban eco habitat, we understand the need to diversify our product typologies to suit a varied group of residents.

With this in mind and to make net zero living a reality to everyone and making it more affordable and accessible, our studio team has come up with the Townhouse typology at our upcoming project, Organo- Damaragidda.

The project makes it possible to live a modern life based on sustainable solutions. The building modules are designed to have a façade that is broken into staggered volumes that allow self shading of the façade and a courtyard with a sky light for  extra light to penetrate the linear form buildings that have East and West orientations. While pergolas and shading screens provide the necessary sun screening to avoid glare and heat gain,  large windows provide great views of the farms and the forests for each unit with the potential for expansive green terraces. Plus, the intelligent lighting, solar panels for heating, and heat recovery, in addition to the massing, will help minimize energy consumption.

The sustainable approach is continuous throughout the building life cycle – from construction phase to operational phase and a possible later decomposition phase.

Moving into an apartment for many people who grew up in a big house may be a shocking experience. Thus, moving into a townhouse is like a dream come true for scores of people. With limited land accessible to all and skyrocketing property costs, building an individual home/ villa is quite difficult and not affordable to all . This is where townhouses enter the picture. A townhouse combines the principles of communal living  associated with group housing with  the convenience and luxury of private breathing space associated with the villas.

Benefits of a townhouse:

• Row houses are spacious and offer a premium lifestyle and aesthetic appeal while keeping the capital and operational costs low.
• Owners benefit from higher undivided share of land (UDS) as a larger expanse of the overall project is freed for green spaces such as farms and forests.
• It is mid-way between villas and apartments. Therefore, you still have the feeling of living in a community while having the necessary privacy.
• Row  Housing is an economical alternative to villa style living and available at reasonable price ranges and hence they can become more affordable.
• People from all walks of life are catered to-With steeply-priced villas communities, townhouses give great features. From a newlywed pair with dogs to an elderly couple in need of some peace, this is the greatest option for homeowners who value their privacy while yet desiring the texture and experience of group housing.

Perceived disadvantages of Town houses & how our architects mitigate them through thoughtful design:

• Common walls creating noise issues & privacy concerns- Our town houses are carefully crafted to have wardrobes on the common walls to avoid noise issues.
• Privacy of adjacent terraces- the flanking walls of terraces have been increased in height to 1.8 M to protect privacy of the adjacent terraces.
• Privacy of opposite facing units- landscape buffers with thick canopy trees and plantations create an almost opaque green screen which is unlike in any villa development too and offers greater privacy.

Our town homes at Damaragidda illustrate most of the architectural philosophies we propagate at Organo Eco Habitats, namely: 

1) Flexibility: We believe that housing should never be just a series of identical, repetitive units. Every family has unique and different needs. And, it is also a fact that most of us do want the ability to customize our belongings, to feel that we are “different”, most of all with our homes. Our townhouses, while reaping all the benefits of the typology, also offer the flexibility of customisation.

2) Net-Zero sustainability: Caters to the individuals our design caters to the health and well being of the residents. Sustainable design is achieved through careful analysis of the sustainability aspects of the built environment, such as energy efficiency, wind studies, day light and heat gain studies etc and devising strategies to enhance the positive use of passive sustainability measured and mitigating the negative issues.The design will generate 100% of its power from solar, all waste will be recycled or digested, and all water recycled. 

‍3) Site Design: As important as the individual units, is the design of the community, and one of the main features we have devised is making the secondary street a tree lined “space for people '' with only emergency access for vehicles. The primary arterial road which connects all the secondary streets is flanked with 2 & 4 wheeler parking bays which are conspicuously sheltered in green canopies and landscape. The 6 M , 2 way driveway is exclusively for vehicular movement , which has 3.5 M wide pathways on either side which allow for cycling and pedestrian movement. Vehicle free pathways allow for residents to walk under the shade of canopied trees to their respective parking and directly get into their vehicles without having to get into moving traffic on the arterial road.Rain shelters which double up as farm view points are created in between the clusters to provide shelter from rain to pedestrians walking from the parking to their homes.

‍

4) Aesthetics: This housing solution has also been designed to be visually pleasing.The architecture is conceived to take advantage of the majestic quality of repetition while avoiding the monotony and flatness of uniformity. This is achieved  by the careful choice of aesthetically crafted facade elements that break the facade into interesting  design details that create a light and shade effect and a mass and void play.

5) Passive recreation and socialization opportunities: Successful housing solutions invariably have interactive community spaces at its heart and  this forms the crux of the Organo - Damaragidda community. The main club house, the “rurban tribe club” is located right at the entry and is housed in a inviting , distinctively styled  structure The alfresco , the banquet with its lawns  provide an idyllic setting for a social gathering  or a celebration. The expansive pool , the totlot , the badminton court  and  the gym provide retreat to the active seeker.Conveniences such as organic stores and clinic are also located along with these amenities to be easily accessible and available round the clock. The estate manager’s residence and  office are located within close proximity of this facility.

Apart from the rurban tribe club, the community is designed to have an “bio activity loop”  with rurban tribe houses spread all over the peripheries of the community that provide an opportunity to engage in a variety of sports, recreation and learning/ work from home activities. All these amenities housed in the rurban tribe houses while being easily accessible from the secondary streets are  also inter connected  by the peripheral mud road. Residents can take a rejuvenating stroll and enjoy the enhanced oxygen levels facilitated  by the 3M wide bio fence while commuting to these facilities and socialising.

‍

MASTER PLAN

EAST FACING VILLA

WEST FACING VILLA

Our Collaborators‍

‍FHD Group – https://fhdindia.com/