Shipra Singhania builds houses the way people built before cement was invented, using mud, lime, sandstone and the specific clay content of whatever soil is underneath her feet, which is why the rammed earth walls of this house in Alwar are pink rather than the ochre you see in Kerala, because Rajasthan soil told her to make them pink.
Hybrid House. Alwar, Rajasthan, India. Sketch Design Studio. Three bedrooms. 2023.
The client grew up in Alwar, moved to Singapore, and came back wanting a house that remembered where he was from without pretending the journey hadn’t happened. The layout is U-shaped around a west-facing courtyard, which is optimal for a hot dry climate. A veranda wraps the southern facade to protect the earth walls from direct sun exposure, roofed with Mangalore tiles and carried on locally quarried sandstone pillars because the wood typically used in south Indian construction was not what this region offered. The interior walls are lime plastered using thappi on the exterior and kada on the interior, both traditional Rajasthani techniques that act as natural insulators against summer heat. The terracotta floors carry kolam inlays, a pattern made from rice flour. The cantilevered stair is one of the only concrete elements in the entire structure.
The farthest Singhania went for materials was Gujarat. Everything else was already in the ground, already in the hands of the artisans around her, already waiting to be used correctly.
We call this primitive in Africa while importing paint and plastic wall panels to finish buildings that crack in the first dry season and cook everyone inside them through the summer.
Sketch Design Studio | Shipra Singhania | Hybrid House | Alwar, Rajasthan | 2023 | Photography: Purnesh Dev