White Mongoose - Parents Residence
Studio name: Bayhauz
Principal Designer: Anant Mairal, Heval Dhudshia, Ankurkumar Azad
Execution team: Pragati Construction
Design team: Bala Ceani, Namitha Niji, Mayuri Jadhav
Furniture: SO Design Lab
Location: Auroville, Tamil Nadu
Photography: Saurabh Madan
Phase 1 of the development comprises three key components: a residence for the clients' parents, a bed-and-breakfast unit, and a series of interactive landscape elements. The design employs humble, locally sourced materials—rammed earth, black Kadappa and Tandoor stone, brick vaults, and flat terracotta filler slabs—combined with simple, efficient construction methods. The intent is twofold: to create a comfortable retirement home for the parents, and to set the foundation for a larger family estate where future independent homes, farming, and landscape development can evolve over time. Architecture here becomes a way of embedding personal gestures, reflecting the unique needs of different family members while holding them together within a coherent whole.
The parents' house is designed as a modest yet generous dwelling. On the ground floor, an open plan integrates kitchen, dining, and living areas, extending naturally into courtyards and outdoor spaces. A stairwell, screened with brick jaali, introduces daylight and leads to bedrooms on the upper floor.
Materiality anchors the experience. Rammed earth walls with mud plaster finishes meet stone and cement oxide floors, balancing warmth with durability. Roof systems vary from sloping metal trusses to terracotta pot filler slabs, creating light-filled interiors with a tactile richness. In its first phase, the project seeks to build quietly and responsively: a home grounded in context, open to landscape, and designed to evolve with the family's changing life over generations.
