A WALK IN THE SKY

Shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival 2024, Total Environment's Green-roof Walk Home in Hyderabad offers a radical departure from the city's generic housing: a joint-family residence that is experimental without fragmentation, luxurious without excess, and sustainable without tokenism

- Ankita Rathod

South Hyderabad is awash with construction, from high-rise apartments to gated villa compounds, yet few of these dwellings make you pause or surprise you with their form.

Tucked within one such residential enclave is the Green-roof Walk Home, designed by Shibanee and Kamal Sagar, Co-founders of Total Environment, and it does precisely that — it makes you pause, because it does not stand like a box but curves like an embrace. Built as a residence for Bhavana and Hari and their extended family, the project extends over 10,000 square feet and accommodates three generations under one roof: a ground-floor suite for grandparents, a master suite and children’s bedrooms above, and common living, dining, and family spaces that stitch them together. At the centre, a courtyard framed by pergolas acts as a breathing core, while a landscaped roof arcs across the house, transforming into an inhabitable walkway that doubles as recreation and circulation.

“It’s a home that had to feel like a protective hug,” says Kamal, who studied architecture at IIT Kharagpur before founding Total Environment in 1996 as an architect-led development model. The metaphor of the hug was not abstract — it guided the flow of spaces, shaping how private rooms tucked into sheltered corners and shared spaces unfolded into gardens and terraces.

A HOUSE THAT CURVES INTO LIFE