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Placed on a narrow site with blank walls on both sides and surrounded by dense neighborhood, this ‘Gala’ required that it can still breathe while remaining introvert. A thin sliver becomes an ‘outdoor’ place inside the house bringing in light, air and green. All major functions of the house expand into this sliver courtyard.

 

Entered from a narrow staircase, one arrives into a double height living-dining area with an open kitchen so that the entire footprint of the site is experienced at once. This vastness is antithetical to the claustrophobic nature of such houses. This double height is flanked by the sliver court with garden. The climbers from the garden will eventually rise up on a coarse wall and droopers hang down from the terrace filling up this void with green. The sliver is capped with terracotta screen towards the front to veil the interiors while allowing breeze and light through the house.

 

The house becomes a study in how one can create space which expands internally despite of limited means and possibilities.