OH HO HOUSE

India 2023
A Meditation on Material, Memory, and Healing

Inspired by a fleeting moment in a South Indian temple - where the setting sun softened the density of stone - Oh Ho House seeks to capture the same interplay between material and light.

Designed as both the home of one of our founders and the Indian office of Play Architecture, the project reclaims the dignity of chapdi, a locally quarried slab stone once central to building in Karnataka but long relegated to walls and paving. Here, chapdi becomes the protagonist - honoured for its structural strength and quiet beauty.

The 370 sq. m. site, a former quarry bordering Bangalore’s zoological park, is organised into a compact 11 x 11 m footprint based on a nine-square grid. At its heart lies an open-to-sky courtyard, bringing light and air into the home. Each 3.6 m bay corresponds to the maximum size of chapdi slabs that could be transported to site. Innovative stone joinery - reminiscent of dovetail carpentry - allows the house to be assembled, dismantled, and potentially reused in the future. Gabion walls made from leftover stone edge the site, providing privacy and shade.

Built almost entirely from untreated stone, the house embodies both poetry and pragmatism: a low-carbon material returned to architectural primacy. Large openings ensure daylight and ventilation, while layered walls and roofs provide thermal comfort. Rainwater is collected in a central pool before feeding into the community system, and the garden shades and softens the boundaries between built and natural.

Conceived as a refuge for the couple, whose lives have been shaped by chronic health challenges, Oh Ho House is not only a home but a meditation on healing, memory, and material. A quiet yet radical gesture that restores stone to its rightful place in contemporary architecture.