Roomoor's Monastic Field: Concrete Home in a Jain Temple Precinct

Architecture studio Roomoor has completed Monastic Field, a concrete house set inside a Jain temple precinct in Baleshwar, India. The building takes its cues from the rock-cut monastic dwellings of the Deccan Plateau.

The client family donated the land for the temple in 2005. Because the temple site draws hundreds of visitors a day, Roomoor shaped the home as a low-slung cluster of concrete volumes — largely closed to the outside, but lit internally by skylights and carefully placed openings.

How does the house relate to the temple?

Roomoor deliberately avoided a single dominant form. "The core idea was to create a spiritual and reflective environment within the order of a house as a cluster, resisting the idea of one large object in favour of many small-scaled experiences," senior partner Mahendra Gusain and design partner Dhruv Gusain told Dezeen.

"The challenge was to create an appropriately scaled public edge while allowing the temple to remain the primary structure," they continued. "This proximity helped us rethink the house as something that responds to the context not only physically, but also in its spirit."

What sits at the centre?

The cluster of rectangular concrete volumes wraps a central hall topped by a pyramidal concrete roof, pierced by a skylight at its apex and clerestory windows on all four sides. Seating beneath this roof is framed by slender concrete columns. The central open space flows into a dining area, a library and an outdoor verandah.

Rectilinear blocks around this heart contain the kitchen, a study, bathrooms and three bedrooms.

"The structure moves from stillness to movement," Mahendra and Dhruv told Dezeen. "It follows a pinwheel organisation around a central pyramidal space, with the plan extending in the cardinal directions while the centre remains connected to the sky."

Why concrete?

The studio chose concrete in response to what it calls the "permanence" of the neighbouring temple's white stone structure, and the "monolithic" qualities of the Deccan's rock-cut shrines and dwellings.

"The house draws from the archetype of rock-cut viharas (monastic dwellings), leading us toward a monolithic language of exposed, form-finished concrete," said Mahendra and Dhruv. "Ultimately, we wanted the material to recede and allow light to become the primary material."

Externally, red sandstone forms the garden walls and patios. Inside, the minimal interiors pair dark wood carpentry with stone floors.

Monastic Field joins a growing body of Indian houses looking to the Deccan's geology for direction. Near Hyderabad, Iki Builds recently completed a home informed by the plateau's rocky character, using rammed earth, local stone and terracotta tiles — a sign the region's rock-cut building tradition continues to shape contemporary Indian residential architecture.

The photography is by Jainee Gusain.