Laura Narayansingh creates her personal colonial-informed home in Trinidad
ACLA Structure director Laura Narayansingh has designed the compact Bush Home on the Caribbean island of Trinidad for her household.
Narayansingh designed the 100-square-metre, two-bedroom home as a compact residence for her household that includes components present in Trinidad and Tobago’s colonial structure.
“Although the size of this home is pushed by the per sq. meter value of constructing, its aesthetic high quality is a results of my ongoing, private seek for an indigenous tradition via structure,” ACLA Structure director Narayansingh informed Dezeen.
“It reinterprets profitable passively-sustainable colonial Trinidadian constructing strategies to permit for minimal power consumption and permits for an structure that may be open and free from burglar proofing.”
The compact home consists of an open-plan kitchen, eating and front room on the bottom ground, with a pair of bedrooms and two loos on the higher ground.
Knowledgeable by the island’s colonial structure, the primary residing area is fronted by 4 arched openings that allow gentle and air into the home, whereas giving views out to the encircling hillside. One other arch set on a column visually separates the seating space from the kitchen.
“In Trinidadian colonial structure, views are celebrated via fretted colonnades,” mentioned Narayansingh.
“The 4 arches happen within the kitchen, the area during which our household spends probably the most time and the place the view of the valley is most celebrated.”
“There’s one thing a couple of framed view via an arch that constantly renews your perspective via its lightness, openness and exquisite dialogue with the sky,” Narayansingh continued.
“The arches are an ode to this extremely essential celebration of the breathtaking views afforded to us by our picturesque Trinidad and Tobago.”
The arched openings lead out to a small terrace, which is enclosed with a retractable, cage-like construction. Narayansingh designed this as a extra interesting different to bars normally positioned on home windows within the nation.
“Ornate burglar proofing is prolific in our panorama however not in my work or my residence,” she defined. “I needed the view of the valley with out seeing the bars earlier than it.”
“The end result was a respiratory cage that expands and contracts, concurrently offering safety that fades to openness,” she continued. “They’re a acutely aware reminder that we’ve the facility, via considerate structure, to grasp our freedom, versus locking ourselves up in our properties via worry of crime.”
All through the home, Narayansingh employed passive cooling strategies to make sure the home stays cool within the nation’s scorching climate.
Together with the big arched openings which might be shaded by the cage, she positioned most of the home windows on the higher flooring with deep reveals containing window bins.
“Trinidad and Tobago has two seasons; the wet season and the dry season,” she defined. “In our year-round, heat, tropical local weather, passive cooling was probably the most spectacular and celebrated traits of Trinidadian colonial structure.”
“Making certain that this residence would stay cool with out mechanical intervention was crucial,” she continued. “As an illustration, the window planters join the house area to the mountains whereas additionally offering shade to the rooms.”
One other Caribbean residence featured on Dezeen is the Sail Home on the island of Bequia, which was designed by Studio of Environmental Structure.
Different homes that designers have just lately created for themselves embrace Yvette van Zyl’s modernist-informed dwelling overlooking South African coast and Remi Connolly-Taylor’s Maryland Home in London.
The images is by Gaby Marie Images and Chad Lue Choy.
