The design for this transforming house in India was inspired by the fossilized landscape of Bidaser Forest that is famous for its so-called Rain Forest Brown marble. Its designers, Matharoo Associates, included an animated facade made up of sliding and spinning walls that transform it from an extremely private residence into a house that invites the surrounding landscape inside. Photographer Edmund Sumner captured these transformations, showing the way the building breathes and changes its appearance as needed throughout the day.
The house, called Moving Landscapes, is located near the city of Ahmedabad in India. It was built for a successful real-estate developer and his family, and designed as a linear pavilion with three equal wings that meander around existing trees in order to preserve them. The central volumes house the main living quarters, while the others accommodate the private spaces. Bedrooms occupy two stories of the wings and are filled with modern Italian furniture, including a Möbius strip-shaped bar made of stainless steel.
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A monolithic 15-foot-tall wall clad in stone opens to reveal the interior of the house, transforming from a continuous volume into an array of panels that rotate around their central axes to reveal the second, glass layer of the envelope. They also provide an abundance of natural light and facilitate natural ventilation. Thanks to a concealed motorized system the house fluctuates from acting as a glass pavilion to becoming a solid volume.
Photos by Edmund Sumner, @edmundsumner
