Indian architects Harshit Singh Kothari and Tanvi Jain have completed Tiny House on the outskirts of Indore, a micro home prototype designed in response to India’s shortage of affordable housing.
With a compact footprint of 19.5 square metres, the home in the Madhya Pradesh state is designed in an attempt to demonstrate how the “aspirational image of an Indian house” could be achieved quickly and with a budget of 4,55,000 rupees (£4,500).
“India faces a housing shortage of 20 million houses in rural areas and 1.5 million houses in urban areas,” Kothari and Jain told Dezeen.
“This house was designed as a prototype in response to this large shortage of affordable housing,” they continued.
“The house design was based on a year-long research that included interactions with the target group living in houses of similar sizes whether they are rented houses, social housing, or self-builds,” added Kothari and Jain.
“We realised that there was scope to experiment with and showcase that an aspirational house with aesthetic appeal could be built using standard methods of construction, at an affordable budget and quickly.”
Given the small footprint of Tiny House, its interior was organised as a single flexible space with high ceilings, designed to be reconfigured for living, dining and sleeping.
A daybed alongside the home’s entrance can be pulled out to create a double bed, which is separated from a kitchen space with a foldable dining table by an area of shelving.
At the rear of the home, a toilet and storage cupboards have been positioned beneath a mezzanine floor, where an additional sleeping area is accessed via a small ladder.
“Inspired by tiny houses and conceptually reconfigured to respond to the Indian climate, the house is organised around a single, multifunctional volume that can transform throughout the day,” explained the architects. “Furthermore, strategically placed windows allow for ample light and quick ventilation of the spaces.”
At the front of Tiny House is a small raised veranda sheltered by a corrugated canopy. It provides an external seating area alongside the entrance while shading the eastern side of the home from the late morning sun.
Despite the small size and budget, Kothari and Jain wanted the home to feel “aspirational”, using materials such as marble flooring, teak window frames and granite worktops. Externally, the brick walls of the home have been covered in earth-coloured plaster.
“Material choices were dictated by the aspirational image of an Indian house and we wanted to showcase that through considerate design and optimised construction, these were achievable at an affordable price point,” said Kothari and Jain.
Other micro homes that have previously been featured on Dezeen include a glazed home raised on stilts in Austria by Czech studio Jan Tyrpekl and a “non-pretentious” brick dwelling in Ecuador by PJCArchitecture.
The photography is by The Space Tracing Company.
