Using site-specific challenges, opportunities and materials can often result in the creation of something stunning, like the House Cast in Liquid Stone. Located in Khopoli, India, where monsoons bring high precipitation and summer brings sweaty heat, this intriguing architectural wonder showcases the local black rock – Basalt – in a contemporary interpretation.
Indian architectural firm SPASM Design Architects imagined the 6,867 square foot second home as an expression of a relaxed lifestyle captured in a frame of locally sourced materials. A mix of basalt and concrete was used to create a fascinating facade that hides private areas while exposing them to wild, natural panoramas:
“We chose to build the house as an accretion on this rocky basalt outcrop with the same inherent material transformed. An outgrowth which was made of a mix of water, sand, cement and the granular basalt. Concrete finely honed to serve as refuge, to face the climatic changes that the site offered. The house was conceived as a cast for human occupation, a refuge which trapped the views, the sun, the rain, the air, and became one with the cliff edge it stood on. Akin to the growth of a coral, the substance of the walls and roof dictate the experience of inhabiting the site.”
