A HOUSE THAT DISAPPEARS

On the far fringes of Hyderabad rises an architectural anomaly where Aamir and Hameeda Sharma of AANDH make the outdoors a permanent trait of the indoors

- PRATISHTHA RANA

I haven't done anything out of the ordinary." Aamir Sharma is swift to conclude, casually defying the calculated magnanimity he undertook to build this (reasonably) utopian farmhouse in Hyderabad. About 50 kilometres from the central pockets of the city, in a slightly isolated but tropical stretch of terrain, the house rises like a structural anomaly. Its walls of glass act like diaphanous screens, dissolving optical boundaries between the outside and the inside. Fair deception, one may call it? And thus, occasionally occurs a fleeting phenomenon at the farmhouse - when every glass panel pulls open and the house in a blink begins to disappear (into the outdoors).

Though what remains on this 16,000 sq ft expanse is a wash of natural light that waltzes through the rooms, the faint rustle of foliage and the bareness of architecture opened inside out. Aamir, who along with Hameeda Sharma, leads their namesake firm Aamir and Hameeda Interior Designers or AANDH, devised this weekend address for a family he's worked with in the past. Their primary agenda was to play hosts and entertain guests. "The brief was clear: they wanted the architecture to blend with nature, with free-flowing air and a strong connection to the landscape, while feeling luxurious, young, vibrant and colourful." This definitive yet layered direction translated to the logic of brutalism being broken down in exchange of an artful, expressive and non-bêton brut dwelling. "I stayed within my core palette of stone, wood and glass. They came together quite naturally in this project," says Aamir, further informing that they had to elevate the farmhouse slightly from the ground level.