SOMETIMES THE BEST SENSE OF WELL-BEING comes from being in tune with one’s environment in the sense that the environment is a carefully constructed mirror reflecting back views of our better personal qualities. When handled architecturally these expressions of our philosophy, values, and intentions can find their way into daily routines that then become a pattern for living, which constantly reinforces and reinvigorates. Such is the case in the recently completed Ramchandani house in Houston by Intexure Architects for a cardiovascular surgeon and his family. When the Mahesh and Devika Ramchandani decided to build a new house they also decided to take a serious and thoughtful look into how they wanted to live. 

That led to the remarkable realization that what they were about to build would in the end be an expression of themselves. This profound realization set in motion a process of self-examination that ultimately brought about a desire to integrate and reconcile competing aspects of the cultural heritage of their roots in India, their life in the modern garden city of Houston, as well as their personal values. These goals, they began to understand, could not be achieved simply through the adaptation of a “style.” Initially the Ramchandanis attended a series of real estate open houses but quickly concluded that the vast majority of upper-middle-class homes suffered the same stock commodification and image-driven foibles of suburban builder tract homes. It soon became clear that they would have to build to get what they wanted. Mahesh comments that “houses really are an expression of who you are and what you think is important, whether you realize it or not.” With this decision came the revelation that they needed the professional services of an architect. The family began attending local architectural home tours and in the fall of 2004 came across a residence designed by Intexure Architects in West University, a village city within Houston’s inner loop. Struck by the simplicity and openness of the design, the Ramchandanis decided they had found an architect who would understand their goals and provide a framework of refined simplicity. Aware of the clients’ desire to integrate aspects of their Indian cultural heritage into the house, Intexure began the design process by researching historical prototypes, including the traditional nine-square-courtyard house with a central space focused on shared family activities. 

That space quickly became the skeletal basis for the house framed in concrete walls. Providing a central shared space for family events and ceremonies, holiday gatherings, entertaining for family and friends, and hosting music recitals became one the major design objectives for the project—a house that would reflect the lives of its inhabitants, their traditions, passions, and sense of community. Along with this was the desire for a sense of grounding and permanence that would be expressed through the traditional concrete walls and masonry construction techniques of India. Early in the design process Mahesh had a conversation with a fellow physician friend and architectural enthusiast who asked what kind of house he wanted to build. When Mahesh said modern but in tune with his heritage and hometown of Houston, his doctor friend introduced him to the work of the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. An impromptu trip to see the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth solidified the desire to pursue an adapted construction approach that employed traditional Indian materials such as cast-concrete walls (along with the economy of regional stick framing and steel) and confirmed the belief that ideas could be clearly expressed through architecture. Simplicity of design, self-adorning materials, and direct, expressed construction techniques are juxtaposed throughout the house, with more exuberant and bold architectural forms and volumes found within the main functional blocks. It is a gymnastic mix of calm and crescendo existing side by side, varying in intensity based on location and time of day as light and shadows play across the surfaces and inhabit the interior spaces. 

Approached from the street the house presents itself as a bold and dynamic presence bounded by the overarching canopies of four very large oak trees that nestle and contain the corners of the house. The leading edges of the two primary cast-concrete walls penetrate the exterior façade and sweep back to either side framing a promenade to the front door and establishing a spatial sequence that draws the eye to a modest, yet crisply delineated modern door within the main western wall. The effect is an interesting counterpoint to recent trends, represented up and down the same street, as here the architect has used a grandness of space preceding the main entry as the bold design stroke instead of the all too common artificial bombastic portico that typifies so many recent Houston homes regardless of their stylistic dress. Despite the dramatically bold presentation to the street, one is immediately struck by the honesty of this design move, as it is in fact a visual teaser for the more refined directness of expression that characterizes the majority of the interior. Large, clearly defined rectilinear volumes of the bedroom wing and the stair tower anchor the visual periphery along the primary approach. A visual richness within these volumes presents itself through the use of several different materials that lends discrete identity to each. The bedroom wing is clad in galvanized aluminum shingles that juxtapose a softer scale and light shimmer to the heavy curved cast-concrete walls that sit below. 

The main stair tower is a dramatic vertical space screened by a window wall. The central facade wall is a two-story-tall translucent wall screen that implies a soft transition to the main living space beyond while maintaining full privacy to the street and filtering the western sun exposure. In the evening this wall glows with a soft luminosity, nestled between the concrete walls that appear more grounded as shadows rise from the ground in the twilight. Here the metaphor of the living space as a precious thing being protected and nurtured is articulated further by the main space beyond, dematerializing into a volume of softly described light bounded with a visual tension to the heavy grounded opacity of the curving concrete walls. Once inside, a spacious two-and-a-half-story open volume greets visitors who are flanked by the two concrete walls that rise up and become the balustrade for the second floor interior balcony halls and supports for the connecting bridge. Above, lit by a flood of light from high clerestory windows, a razor thin white roof plane hovers above in stark contrast to the visually heavy ground plane. To the east a floor-to-ceiling, steel-framed wall of glass visually extends the large central gathering space out into the yard as a glass-enclosed version of the traditional Indian courtyard and references thier Indian cultural heritage. 

This visual linkage is further dramatized by a series of smaller adjacent spaces that step down the scale and connect horizontally to adjacent “support” spaces in the house and by the more formal saffron-colored vertical panels located along the property line which draw the eye out from the interior and visually bound the perimeter of the garden. A large sliding glass wall opens from the living room onto a generous patio sheltered by a sweeping, thin roof plane that appears to hover disengaged from the glass above. A Houston house in the true sense, the design integrates the indoors and outdoors into one large flowing space that teeters between crisp definition and indeterminacy, with the verdant majesty of the surrounding oaks and the new under-canopy landscaping appearing to occupy the main living space. The spatial sense of the main room imbues the space with a feeling of calm amid a vibrant and unfolding series of changing light and sound that constantly reinforce and sometimes accentuate each other. The subtle dynamism of the main space, infused with the underlying rhythms of function and habit, has pleasantly surprised the Ramchandanis. After having lived in the house for six months, they say the new house has exceeded their expectations in helping them achieve balance in their life, and that it simply feels good to be home.