HOUSE BY THE LAKE

With its low-slung roofs, shaded verandahs, open baths, and a temple tree at its heart, this tropical modernist weekend home by 23DDS-with landscaping by Studio Gaea-blurs the line between house and horizon.

- Ankita Rathod

Along the calm, glinting expanse of Osman Sagar-Hyderabad's storied reservoir in Gandipet a weekend home by 23 Degree Design Shift (23DDS) rises in quiet dialogue with its surroundings. Set on a 1.2-acre site and measuring 10,500 sq. ft. in built area, the house is designed as a low-slung, tropical modernist residence that offers privacy, panoramic lake views, and seamless interaction with nature. Comprising four bedrooms, a spa and gym block, a home theatre, and a separate guest suite with its own bar, the house flows across interconnected pavilions and courtyards that celebrate light, breeze, and material restraint. The landscape design-developed in close collaboration with Studio Gaea-further enhances the site's natural rhythms, creating a living tapestry around the architecture.

Instead of imposing a singular architectural mass, the plan breaks the programme into dispersed volumes-each anchored to the site through a gently ascending plinth. This base platform, ranging from 2 to 6 feet in height, not only follows the land's natural gradient but helps differentiate functional zones while tying them together visually with water features and green interludes. Directional walls and landscaped mounds introduce an orchestrated arrival sequencevisitors are drawn through high boundary walls, past a shaded parking bay and into an entry plaza that slowly unveils the architecture in fragments. The house finally opens out towards the northeast, framing uninterrupted views of the lake and the New City skyline.

A GRID OF TRANQUILITY