PRESENTATION ON WORKS OF NARI GANDHI

1. "...the reality of
architecture is not
contained in the
roof and walls, but
in the space within.
It is the space
that is."
- Nari Gandhi
PRESENTED BY:-
AMAN KUMAR GUPTA

2.  Nari Gandhi (1934-1993) was an Indian
architect known for his highly innovative
works in organic architecture.
 Nariman (Nari) Dossabhai Gandhi was born
in 1934 in Surat to a Zoroastrian Parsi
family from Bombay.
 Nari completed his schooling at St. Xavier's
High School, Mumbai, and studied
architecture at Sir J. J. College of
Architecture, Mumbai for five years in early
1950s.
 He travelled to USA to apprentice with Frank
Lloyd Wright at the Taliesin and spent five
years there.
 After Wright's death in 1959, Nari left
Taliesin and studied pottery at the Kent
State University for two years.

3.  While working in India, Nari continued to work on
Wright's ideology of organic architecture and further
developed his own unique style with a subtle
influence of local climate and culture.
 He ceaselessly continued to work on Wright's idea
of 'flowing space'.
 Nari worked without an office and rarely made any
drawings for any of his projects.
 Nari spent a lot of time on his sites and worked
closely with the craftsmen and often participated in
the construction process himself.
 Also known as ‘Howard Roark of India’.

4.  Using a wooden stick as his pencil, he sketched
on the ground to explain his plan.
 If he wasn’t happy with a construction, he would
immediately tear it down !
 His works display a distinctive organic character.
 They appear to have evolved as a response to the
context, remaining strongly rooted to the site and
being very well connected to the surroundings.
 Nari's works display highly skilled craftsmanship
and structural ingenuity.

5.  Each building designed by Nari is as an
example of unconventional thinking in
architecture.
 He created built spaces that remained
forever connected to their un-built
surroundings allowing sunlight and wind
to interact with the inside and animate
the space with time.
 Each house is a series of dialogs
between the built and the unbuilt.

6.  He has stacked earthen pots to construct arches
out of them and built stairs out of brick arches.
 Throughout his works you see extraordinary use
of stone, brick, wood, glass and leather.
 Nari rejected conventional ideas and paradigms
and introduced his own through his work.
 Through his work, he started 'rethinking' about
standardised practices and set up his own.
 When you visit any one of his houses, you will
notice an evident 're-thinking' of the arrangement
of various functions within the house.

7. CONSTRUCTION
Extensive use of :
 Brick Arches
 Buttresses
 Stone Masonry
 He is seen using local materials, as well as design components
into new forms and merging them beautifully with nature.
 Each of the structures Gandhi built were products of happy
marriage between art and architecture.

8. VARIOUS PROJECTS
• Dawood Shoes Office – Mumbai
• Gobhai Mountain Lodge –
Lonavala
• Jain Bungalow – Lonavala
• Korlai Bungalow – Korlai
• Madh Island House – Madh
Island
• Moondust Residence –Madh
Island
• Revdanda House – Revdanda
• Tungarli Bungalow - Lonavala

9. GOBHAI MOUNTAIN LODGE,
LONAVALA

10. DAWOOD SHOES OFFICE,
MUMBAI

12. Exterior detail of the roof overhang, supported by trusses.
The overhang has rectangular openings and is sheathed in terracotta
tiles

13. Exterior view taken from the second storey, looking to the garden and the beach

14. Exterior detail of a roof projection supported by wooden struts and clad along the edge with flat
terracotta tiles

15. Roof detail showing chipped stonework at the base of the lower roof and protruding struts to support the deep
overhang

16. Exterior detail of terracotta-clad roof corner with rectangular openings in the roof

17. View of the garden looking to the beach from beneath deep roof overhangs

18. Interior view of the entrance door with infill of chipped glass, thin wooden rails, tiles and precious
stones

19. Detail of a staircase on an arch.
Located in the living room, the stair leads to the bedrooms on the upper floor

20. Interior detail of stair treads resting on a stone arch; there are no hand rails on either side

21. Interior view of the intersecting stone arches made from a variety of chipped stones, large boulders, and
terracotta pots

22. View of the dining area with a mural wall at left.
Beyond the glazed slanted wall is the beach

23. Detail of the mural wall: geometric patterns in mud brick

24. Detail of the mural wall: a variety of shapes in relief create a
pattern

25. Interior view with mural wall ahead and glazed kitchen wall at
right

26. Interior view looking at a stone wall made in situ using stone chips, large dressed stones, and boulders

27. Interior view: leather-upholstered seat cushions, a stone wall, and a mirror
reflecting the wall

28. Interior detail of the living space just below the roof:
a bench is placed where the roof meets the wall

29. Exterior detail of the terracotta-tiled roof overhang supported by numerous
struts

30. Interior detail within the roof, showing the junction of the struts, rafters, beams, and the glazed slanting wall on the
lower storey

31. Interior view looking upward at wooden beams and roof above

33. View of the main living areas set behind the double-arched opening made from exposed brick

34. Exterior view of a house adjoining the Revdanda house, where a double-arched exposed brick façade has been
added !

35. semi-circular arched verandah

36. projecting beds on the mezzanine level

37. main living areas set behind the double-arched brick wall

38. seating area

39. view from the mezzanine level looking at an arch supporting the roof

40. Interior view looking at the living area with a small staircase leading to the mezzanine

41. Exterior view of the house taken from the landscape in the
backyard

42. courtyard from the entrance verandah

43. checkered brick-paved pathway leading to an adjoining structure that the architect built for himself

44. Detail of the concentric landscaping done using inverted terracotta pots in a
concrete bed

45. Detail of the inverted terracotta pots beside an old iron
gate

46. Detail of the moss-covered water channel used for
irrigation

48. Exterior view of sea-facing elevation of bungalow; the barrel-vaulted bedrooms are visible in center and at
right. Under the main roof of the bungalow is the arched pavilion

49. Exterior view of bungalow taken from the wall of the compound (the sea is located at
right).
The vault of one bedroom is visible at center right. Steps lead up from the garden to
the main living area

51. Exterior view taken from the rear garden (the sea is located at left).
One bedroom is visible at lower left; at center is the main arched pavilion with its sloping roof

52. Exterior detail view of the sea-facing elevation of the arched pavilion.
Below the ridge line of the roof is a balcony leading to the interior loft. The pavilion itself is supported by an
arcade on the lower level; openings in the walls are filled with colored glass

53. side view of pavilion,
showing the corbelled
buttresses abutting the
arcade. Arcade handrail is
detailed to echo the
buttresses.
Stairwell at the far corner.

54. view of the arcade of the pavilion, viewed from within the pavilion.
The stairwell opening, under a projecting roof, is visible at left

55. view of the living space of the arched pavilion, defined between the two
arches.
A staircase (at left) leads to the overhead viewing room/loft

56. view from within the pavilion, looking at the roof with its steel rafters
supporting the wooden layer of the Mangalore-tiled roof

57. view of the pavilion looking at the circular dining area, showing the chairs
with different leg heights designed for the split-level floor

58. view of upper level of pavilion, facing the overhead viewing room.
Balconies in the viewing room face the beach and the backyard

59. view of the ground floor of pavilion, facing the backyard.
At left is built-in seating area complete with integrated handrail

60. View of a bedroom (below, at right) from the stairwell of the arched
pavilion

61. View from within the arcade, at ground level.
The volume of a vaulted bedroom intersects with the volume of the kitchen and the landscaping platforms of the
garden

63. Exterior view of the Madh Island house within the landscape

64. night view of the Madh Island house, showing 2 of the 3 lit barrel vaults and terrace canopy against the silhouette of
a triangular gate

65. view from the triangular gate looking at the vaulted entryway

66. Detail view of the stone paving at entryway made with smooth stones from the nearby
beach

67. Exterior view from the rear-end garden of the house, overlooking a non-structural stone buttress with large pots and
foliage

68. Interior night view of entrance from the gateway to the main vaulted living space

69. Exterior vew taken from the rear-end garden of the house showing the non-structural stone arch and main vaulted living

70. Exterior evening view taken from the rear-end garden overlooking the non-structural stone arch and main vaulted
living space

71. Exterior view from the rear-end garden looking towards the stone-clad main barrel vaulted living space

72. Interior view of the stone-clad barrel vaulted living space with the swing suspended from a punctured opening in the va

73. Night view of the barrel vaulted living space with the furniture designed by the architect

74. Night view of the barrel vaulted living space with custom furniture and strips of light within
the floor

75. swing suspended from a wooden brace in the elliptical opening

76. elliptical opening in the barrel vault from above; interior floor visible through opening

77. Front view of the barrel vault with stonework that integrates large boulders and plants

78. Detail view of the chipped stonework and larger stones, cladding the vault

79. Detail view of interior wall surface, showing chipped stonework with clay faces

80. Interior view from the dining vaulted space overlooking triangular gates
with encroaching boulders in foreground and vegetation beyond

81. Interior view from the dining vaulted space looking inwards at the stone table and the glass chipped bathroom
at left

82. Interior view of a mother-of-pearl awning covering a massive stone facing a stone platform opposite the
bathroom

83. Interior view of the bathroom and kitchen platform taken from the dining barrel-vaulted space

84. Interior detail view of the bathroom, showing flat chips of glass - similar to the stonework outside –
and circular mosaic tiles with intermediary stone arches

85. Interior view looking outwards at the wooden triangular gates

86. Exterior detail of the wooden gates and smooth stone pavings at the entrance

87. sentry statue guarding the vaulted main spaces in the background and the terraced garden
above

88. view of the terraced garden above the barrel-vaulted spaces

89. Exterior view of the terraced garden at night.
The mother-of-pearl canopy sits on the crown of the vault

90. Exterior view of the terraced garden showing the chipped stone pathway, flowerbeds, and the large mother-of-pearl cano

91. the vaulted mother-of-pearl canopy

92. View from under the mother-of-pearl canopy

93. Interior of the mother-of-pearl canopy, looking at the lush garden in the
background

94. Detail of the mother-of-pearl canopy adjoining the foliage and chipped
stonework

95. Detail view of the mother-of-pearl pieces, which are tied together using thin ropes

96. Interior view looking upwards at the arrangement of broken amber-colored bottles
forming a skylight ring with chipped stonework in the foreground

97. Detail view of a concave-in-centre circular paver block made from chipped stones
that are cast on a bed of plain cement concrete (p.c.c.)

98. Detail of view of a convex-in-centre circular paver block made from
chipped stones that are cast on a bed of plain cement concrete (p.c.c.)

100. General view of the Jain bungalow, looking at the sloping roofs set in the undulating
terrain

101. Exterior view of the garage showing the play of mangalore-tiled sloping roofs, supported by steel members on the
ground

102. Exterior view from the gate

103. Exterior view looking upwards at the entrance facing balcony and mangalore-tiled roof

104. view of the steel truss-supported roof that follows the terraced landscaping on site

105. skylight opening in the roof overhang

106. Exterior view of the house taken from the lowest end of the slope.
The external wall is made of hand-dressed stone arranged in random rubble
masonry

107. Interior view of the bedroom wall showing the exposed truss overhead and elongated
polygonal openings set in dressed stone masonry

108. play of light against a rough stone wall

109. Interior view looking at the staircase, which is set behind a stone buttress with horizontal bands of polished
stone and wood

110. Interior view looking towards the card room with a hemispherical grilled
opening

111. Interior view looking outwards through an elliptical window

112. Interior view looking at a variety of openings set in stone masonry

113. Detail view of chipped stonework used for cladding wall surfaces

114. Interior view looking at the flight of stairs
leading to the main living spaces of the
house
Detail view of the staircase with the curvilinear forms
of openings, pots, and arches around it

115. Detail view of the skylit court and its chipped stonework, with built-in planter beds
surrounded by circular openings and a blue glass-chipped hemisphere

116. circular colored glass infills in a bathroom

117. Source Book