indian date

I'm not a fan of Gordon Ramsay but his new cooking series, Gordon's Great Escape while hopping across the Indian subcontinent is something else. The filming was made after Gordon's scandalous revelation regarding his long term affair. And like everyone else, he took some time out, travelled but makes even more money! Now, I've seen various travelling cooking series on Good Food Channel and Food Network but nothing beats Channel 4's newest instalment. The Good Food Channel aired Gary Rhodes, Travel across India mid last year but I was annoyed watching the condescending Rhodes, who acted like a spoilt colonial Brit, second guessing every local guest chef with sarcastic remarks. Why can't he just shut up?! Looking awkward and not completely comfortable on set, I would have preferred watching his 2 sous chefs working and with him being completely out of the frame.

Thinking of India makes me remember an interesting residential project on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The client wanted a weekend retreat away from his business as an aquarium shop owner. Apart from this, he also wanted a space for breeding fish. What Matharoo Associates came up with was a ingenious design centred around 4 fish breeding tanks and a observation room which doubles up as a living room. Due to the tight budget constraints, every aspect of the design is to shave off unwanted expense (i.e. single duct for all 3 bathrooms, using bent rods for door handles and locks, 125mm thin concrete walls with standard concrete and using GI sheets for doors and windows). That doesn't stop there, as you approach the nondescript residence, you'll noticed that the house and the whole walls around the plot is a retention structure for the breeding tanks. These are enclosed by glass windows that runs the whole length of the space and since glass is cheaper than concrete, the expenses get even lower. Bonus!

The layout of the house provides various vantage points of the water tanks; the bedroom, the living room, below the glass window sills and the sitting ledge above the tanks. Negating the need for foundations, the long concrete-box house is half-sunken into the ground, which splits the space into 2 distinct areas. One of its sides opens onto the garden and the breeding tanks. You'll notice that there are shutters on both sides of the living area. These top hung metal shutters guide the viewer eyes through the entire length of the wall. Concrete baubles are used as counterweights to hold the metal shutters open because it's the cheapest solution possible. Once in a while, you would see the baubles swing in the wind while the shutters are partially open creating an animated conversation between the house and its surrounding. The concrete frame around the windows functions as a seat from the garden, a protective barrier against rats and snakes, steps for climbing on to the garden, a jumping platform from the terrace, a weather protection and extra worktop for serving larger parties. Camouflaged by the grassy incline, the architects added 50,000 litres rain water storage, a bio-gas plant and a heat exchange tube. Lastly, the sloping field allows the viewer to walk up to its terrace and enjoy the view of the water lily petals and the 'weightless' concrete baubles.

The conversation keeps on replaying in my head. Each word dissected and examined and still I'm no closer to the answer. If I was to measure how far away are we from where we need to be, the Brunette and me; it's a long long way from where it needs to be. Somehow, I could feel that we knew this was coming. It wasn't in the plan. There wasn't a plan. And, the Brunette feels it would and wants to see if it could work.