CuE-1/6

Architecture Firm: PORTAL 92
Project Location: Greater Noida, India
Category: Residential Architecture, Landscape Architecture
Team: Sagar Goyal, Aanchal Sawhney, Deepak Goyal, Astha Verma, Richa Malhotra, Praneet Singh, Varsha Rath
Site: 850 sqm.
Project Completion Year: 2022
Exterior Wooden Cladding: Opulo
Millworks: Mobel Grace
Architectural Lighting: Halomax
Stone: StoneX & Amit Marbles
Metal Works: S.K. Metal Industries
Exterior Door & Window: IGT
Photographs: Niveditaa Gupta

Nestled inside the vast greens of Jaypee Golf Course, rests our recently completed private residence project, CuE-1/6. The built presents itself as an organized compression of volumes, seemingly solid/impervious from the outside, but harbouring a rainforest/observatory at its heart. Restricting ourselves to minimal and true materials, the aim was to allow the built to invite, observe, capture and frame, the natural environment around, whether with it and in it.
The Wooden wall on the front façade blends the entrance, hidden under the shade of a tapering steel canopy. Ribbons of steel and slits of aluminium, dissect and wrap the exterior, working to mask and break the structural framing system.
As one treads towards the rear lawn, they are gradually engulfed by a series of trellises, cascading along the building’s elevations. These customized trellises were designed to appear like a woven structure of wood, resting onto slender metal supports, filtering the harsh southwest sun.
In the heart of the residence lies the wild courtyard, designed as a dense forest, within the built structure. Internal balconies with customized metal details stagger within the court, overlooking each other and promoting interaction. Almost every space within the house is exposed to the vast manicured greens of the golf course, while also overlooking the wild courtyard, allowing the user varied experiences.
Dictated by intricate design details and a crisp palette of materials, CuE 1/6 presents itself as an observatory, romancing the landscape around it, and allowing it to percolate within.