This Ahmedabad house is enclosed within a curved concrete shell

This Ahmedabad house by Shikha Parmar and Ashish Parmar of Achyutam Designs was designed as a new family home for a long-time client. Two structures, each apparently formed from a ribbon of concrete, sit adjacent to a pool and a generous landscaped garden, fulfilling the brief for ‘something different.’

Explore this Ahmedabad house's concrete curves

Each shell in the aptly named Carapace House has a distinct function, with the larger structure given over to living, dining and relaxing, while the small houses two bedrooms. The ends of each concrete tube are fully glazed, with the use of reflecting pools and polished Kota stone floors ensuring that dappling and rippling sunlight is cast up and across the curved walls throughout the day.

Surrounded by terraces, lawns and walkways, in addition to that generous swimming pool, the Carapace House feels open to its surroundings, with vegetation serving as a backdrop to practically every room. The idea of a house embedded in nature is emphasised by the entrance procession, which keeps car parking away from the structures and reveals them via a walkway that meanders through mature indigenous planting.

The larger of the two oval concrete tubes is also sliced and segmented, creating notches serve as courtyards and windows, as well as a corridor leading past the reflecting pool to the main swimming pool. An arc of concrete completes the oval and frames the garden.

At the other end of this structure lies the kitchen and dining area, with its own secluded courtyard, alongside a separate family area. The use of concrete has been extended from structural elements to fixtures and fittings, with integral seating and benches inside and out, as well as the two beds and their side tables in the sleeping structure. There’s more than a hint of Niemeyer in the reliance on fluid concrete forms, juxtaposed with big leaf planting and sinuous patterns and tiles.

Throughout the garden, the architects have created niches and courtyards, with a separate circular gazebo connected via ramps and walkways, as well as kitchen garden and barbecue area. The periphery is marked with a winding path through fruit trees that helps weave the site together, whether it’s geometric concrete, new planting, or a reflective spot in the heart of nature.

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