- Project: The Ring House
- Architect: studio prAcademics
- Location: India, Gujarat
- Year: 2021
- Area: 740 m2
- Photography: Inclined Studio / Manan Surti Photography
Context & Vision
The Ring House is situated amid agricultural fields and a water canal on one edge of the site, and over 120 mature fruit trees (mango, chickoo/sapodilla) on the rest. The design responds not just to built programme but to biodiversity, climate, and regional typologies of Gujarat. The brief was for a weekend home for a large family of 14 including children, so the design had to balance gathering and retreat, inside and outside, tradition and contemporary life.
Form & Typology
Instead of a simple rectangular volume, the house takes the form of a circular ring. This shape helps to minimise footprint, reduce heat gain by having fewer exposed edges, and organise circulation and living in a continuous loop. The architecture draws inspiration from traditional Saurashtra village typologies: the “faliyu” (an open-to-sky forecourt) and the “osri” (verandah or semi-private circulation zone). These two elements are reinterpreted:
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The ring’s inner void acts like a forecourt / gathering yard, open to sky, with skylights and light shafts.
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Around the ring, verandah-like buffer zones (“osri”) wrap and mediate between living spaces and external climate.
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The built mass is elevated by about 3 metres on a “table” level to preserve surrounding trees, while parts cantilever beyond to reduce impact and frame view.
This architecture doesn’t impose itself; it nestles within its environment, layering tradition and innovation.
Spatial Organisation
The plan arranges bedrooms, kitchen, dining, living zones in a ring around a central node. The circulation corridor (verandah) separates more public living spaces from private sleeping zones. The elevation helps capture breezes, provide shade, and raise living areas above the ground level vegetation and orchard canopy. Strategic openings and “slits” in the circular roof allow skylight to penetrate and give vertical connection to the sky and tree canopy.
Materiality & Climate Response
Materials are regionally appropriate and crafted for comfort in the hot semi-arid Gujarat climate:
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Walls: Brick-clad external shells that provide thermal mass.
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Roof: Slant, saucer-like projecting slab to shade walls and openings from harsh sun.
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Verandah and buffer zones: Deep overhangs and open-to-sky segments moderate sunlight and promote cross-ventilation.
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Landscape: Existing fruit trees retained, water canal edge used as context for breeze and greenery, site contours integrated rather than flattened.
The design emphasises passive sustainability: shade, orientation, openings, buffer zones, natural ventilation. Instead of heavy mechanical cooling, the architecture works with climate and site.
Experience & Atmosphere
Walking through The Ring House, one moves from the exterior orchard and fields, onto an elevated lawn platform, into the circular forecourt, then through the ring of living and sleeping spaces, all while always connected visually and atmospherically to greenery and sky. The ring form creates continuous vista lines, surprise glimpses of trees, framed views of fields, and a fluid spatial sequence. The house encourages gathering, play (for the children), quiet retreat, but always with nature present.
Texture, shadow, light shift through the day — in the forecourt at dawn, under the ring’s canopy at midday, in the buffer verandah at dusk. The house is designed to age with the trees and seasons, to feel rooted rather than trendy.
Why It Matters
The Ring House stands out for:
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Its form innovation: turning village typology into a compact circular home that both anchors and floats.
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Its environmental sensitivity: preserving existing vegetation, using elevation and cantilever to reduce footprint, crafting buffer zones for thermal comfort.
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Its experience of place: combining orchard, water canal, sunset fields with references to local architecture, making a modern home that still feels deeply Gujarati.
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Its multigenerational programme: designed for a large family ecosystem, blending social and private seamlessly.
From the ring shape to the elevated lawn platform, The Ring House orchestrates architecture, nature, climate, and human dynamics into one coherent whole.
