Project: Jubilee Terraces Residence
Architects: SpaceFiction Studio
Location: Hyderabad, India
Area: 27,500 sf
Year: 2023
Photographs by: Vivek Eadara, The Fishy Project, Sohaib Ilyas
The house in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, embraces the topography and context. The 160-foot site features cascading landscapes, staggered terraces inspired by paddy fields, and towering yellow flame trees. The lower levels host recreational spaces around a double-height pool area, while the upper floors house bedrooms and a master suite with a private verandah. A central volume with a sculptural staircase and skylights connects the spaces, emphasizing a play of light. The material palette, dominated by inert white marble, creates a timeless ambiance, complemented by biophilic landscapes. The design prioritizes visual and sensory experiences over fleeting luxury trends.
Jubilee Hills is a hilly, up-market residential neighborhood in Hyderabad, India. It is filled with large, opulent residences, most of which are more vanity projects of its influential inhabitants than climate or context-sensitive structures. As such, every building, in an attempt to appear distinct and more striking in its immediate surroundings, made this neighborhood an amalgamation of a misfit mix of architectural styles from every when and where. Character, if any, comes from the undulating hilly roads, the rocky terrain, and the consistent presence of large trees, especially the Yellow flame trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum), compared to the other neighborhoods of Hyderabad.
The site is 160 feet long with shorter sides of 60 feet facing north and south. The shorter sides have road access and a slope down 30 feet from south to north. On the north and south, just outside the site, are gigantic Yellow flame trees towering over four stories.
House of cascading Landscapes: A large foyer with an overhanging garden punctured with skylights welcomes one into the lower two levels of the house through a colossal door. These levels accommodate all the recreational spaces centered around a large double-height volume that houses the pool. The upper five levels stagger back to create north terraces echoing the undulating paddy fields of India. These terraces are shaded throughout the year by the floor preceding it, filled with a landscape that cascades onto the subsequent lower terraces. The towering yellow flame trees along the northern and southern sides act as a natural visual barrier from the immediate surroundings, and their dramatic seasonal bloom adds a lush yellow foliage to the environmental palette.
Inside, in the heart of the house, is a large central volume with two connecting double-height areas. A large, blank, marble-cladding wall runs through the entirety of this volume, over which light washes through the skylights strategically placed above the indoor plantation areas. A sculptural staircase bends sinuously in the chiaroscuro, whose shape-shifts with the skylights overhead, fanning out to the first-floor living room. There are three bedrooms, two on the first floor and a third on the second, all peeking into the central volume through introspective windows. Usurping the third floor, a master bedroom finds itself graciously complemented by an attached study and a private verandah. The apex features a party room for al fresco entertaining conferred upon the family’s inner circle of friends and visitors.
Materiality: Inert white marble forms the majority of the palette, with a few highlights of beige lime plaster and brass. Light becomes a building material, percolating through various skylights in large volumes. Biophilic landscapes in the interiors and the exterior juxtapose over the contrasting marble interiors to create a sense of timelessness. A multiplicity of visual and sensory experiences is given precedence over fleeting luxury trends.
