The Folly House is imagined to be an assemblage of excitable points of intensity floating on large, tactile planes that transform on interaction and engagement into spaces of utility and wonder.
Situated in Pune, the design investigates an open-plan schema where every functionality of the house is compacted into multi-functional or mobile objects. The remaining space is left untouched, activated only when these objects unfolded, rotated or pivoted open.
The Folly House is a collection of complex, curious objects that occupy an otherwise gallery-like indoor space.
The primary space of the house hosts two follies: The Living Room Folly and The Study Folly. While the former is designed as a continuous, undulating object that assumes multiple roles as one engages in activities around the same, the latter is a box that un-boxes itself to reveal functional voids and surfaces. As a strategy, The Busride Design Studio has designed these objects for most critical functions of the house – a table that rotates, a labyrinth that serves as a space for children and a Tangram graphic that rearranges itself into a house as one walks past it.
The Living Room Folly that addresses six independent functionalities in the room uses a parametric software to generate its organic structure is eventually “constructed as a mesh of bent mild steel flats resting on stainless branch-like supports. The metal framework is then skinned with flexi plywood on top and bottom and finally clad by 1/2”-3/4” thick teak wood planks set in a herringbone pattern.”
The drawings and diagrams suggest two independent thought processes of association and dissociation as the Follies work within and independent of the plan.
Anchored to their specific purpose in the space, they are unable to move but completely open to change and adopt thus being able to build familiarity and relationships. This formless space enables the objects to express their individual personality – almost as if they are dynamic sculptures in a gallery space. The process of design places the people who are to use the house in the centre of the environment – a place that is activated by their presence ⊗
THE BUSRIDE DESIGN STUDIO is an independent design firm specialising in the design and creation of built environments, ranging from hospitality and entertainment venues to film and production environments, and from exhibitions and temporary installations to institutional environments. Led by Ayaz Basrai and Zameer Basrai, the office is a team of Architects, Interior Designers, Graphic Designers, Exhibition Designers and Industrial Designers, who work in a multi-disciplinary design environment across micro to macro scales ranging from crafting small products to urban design. The firm is known to have designed and executed many projects of critical acclaim. Apart from design, the studio is involved in social initiatives like The Bandra Project, pedagogy and research. They work from Mumbai and Goa.
Information
Design Team: Apurv Aniruddh, Hinal Vyas, Pranali Patel, Rujuta Naringrekar, Kevin Mathew, Preeti Nautiyal, Shripal Shah
Chief Contractor: Shakir Basrai
Project Year: 2015
Manufacturers: ABACA, FAB, Scoop Energy Solutions, HEM, Mansee Badve of Casa Nir
