Ata Jan-Ahmadnejad

Bringing the Outside, In



This off-grid small building has been designed to allow residents the opportunity to connect with nature and weather conditions of their environment through the architecture's form, as it allows rain to be directed into the building in an elegant yet interactive way, ultimately bringing the outdoors inside. The building's simple extruded timber structure allows for easy and affordable construction anywhere, remote or far, warm or cold, prone to a significant amount of rainfall or not. For this project, the building has been chosen to be placed on the Wular Lake in Kashmir, India, because of its rich natural context, natural fresh lake water and frequent rain activity.
The home's roof takes inspiration from the typical A-frame home. Still, instead of having the roof's peak in the centre, causing the rainfall to be directed outward, this roof takes an inverted approach to lead the rainwater towards the centre and ultimately inside. This extruded roof has been designed specifically to allow the rainfall to be guided inside the home in an organized and direct path to ensure the rain will be entering directly onto the central planter on the ground floor and not making a mess for the rest of the home. To maintain a smaller footprint, the house utilizes a second-floor loft for the bed, which has been placed directly in front of the waterfall condition to remain connected. The roof will also feature a remote-controlled hydraulic system to open and close the roof's opening so the decision to have rain enter the home can be provided to the residents.



Toronto Metropolitan Department of  Architectural Science Toronto, CA.