Gurjit Singh Matharoo, who founded Matharoo Associates in 1991, is known for his expertise beyond the world of architecture, designing motorcycles, cars and even mobile blood banks (W*125), which enabled the firm to create a circular central lounge with moveable concrete walls that skilfully divide and unify the rooms. This is a house that places innovation at its core, quite literally. Set in Surat, a Gujarati port city known for its diamond-cutting workshops, Plain Ties is a sophisticated 9,130 sq ft residence that bridges modernity, tradition and a sense of experimentation.
While cultural attitudes towards multigenerational living are gradually shifting, and families now often choose to set up independent units, Matharoo Associates, an award-winning practice based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has retained this traditional living arrangement in its latest project, Plain Ties. In this part of the world, three – sometimes even four – generations often live under one roof, creating a complex interplay of daily lives. Inside the typical Indian home, you can usually find grandparents scurrying behind their grandchildren while business meetings happen in private quarters. The ground floor is dominated by a large inner courtyard, a gently curving volume that rises right up to the pitched roof and serves as both circulation space, lightwell and informal living space. The independently accessed basement level is zoned as a multi-functional space, incorporating storage space, room for an office or even a self-contained rental unit.
The wooden Accoya cladding comes in two shades, black and grey, further reducing the bulk of the overall volume. The striated façade mirrors the internal arrangement, with a long row of glazing on the upper level and a solid concrete base where the project meets the street. Despite the relatively conventional pitched-roof house approach, the upper floor houses the living space, with bedrooms on the middle floor and stores and utility on the ground floor. Making the most of an overlooked site – a small alleyway at the end of a residential avenue – the architects have pushed the built envelope to the edge of the plot and inverted the traditional house structure. Ardmore House was designed and built for personal use by architects Alison Von Glinow and Lap Chi Kwong of Kwong Von Glinow.
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