Malik House
The Malik family consists of five brothers, three of whom live on the eastern side of the island in Behrampur village. Over the past 75 years, their ancestral home has undergone a series of gradual transformations, evolving to meet the changing needs of the growing family. Originally a single-story, five-room house with a sloping roof, it has expanded into a 50-meter-long double storey structure, with a continuous corridor running through its main axis.
Basu and Sunkhal, both fishermen, each own two boats and fish daily in two shifts, starting at 6 AM. Niranjan Malik, the eldest of the three brothers living in the house, is a farmer. His farm, just a kilometer away, supplies seasonal produce, while the fish caught by his two brothers are also sold in the city. The Malik home is divided into three main sections, with the newest part built just five years ago, incorporating modern construction techniques introduced after the 2019 Fani cyclone.
This part is used by the eldest son, Niranjan malik along with his wife.The other two sections can be further classified as renovated and non-renovated. The middle son, Basu and family lives in the renovated section, where the upper floor is newly built, while the ground floor retains its original structure. The youngest son, Sunkhal, along with his two children and wife, resides in the oldest section, which has not been renovated and still retains its 50-year-old features, including the sloping roof.
As family demographics have evolved, so too has the spatiality of the house. The Malik house now functions as a unified space, with distinct sections marking invisible boundaries between the three brothers, their occupations, and their livelihoods.
The Malik household has 11 family members currently living in the house. The primary occupation of the household is fishing.
Household Profile
Site Plan
The house, lacking a traditional backyard, serves as a public corridor connecting two streets. Over time, its form has evolved, resulting in no clear "main" entrance. The two street accesses reflect distinct gender dynamics, with different entrances used by different genders. The first-floor terraces align to create a continuous shared space, linking all homes in the area.
Dimensions:- 10 x 100 Haath. The house features a uniform width with a long corridor connecting the individual rooms, enhancing accessibility for the families. The construction materials vary, with one family's section made of tarpaulin, while the others are built from concrete and asbestos.
The house has invisible boundaries for the three brothers separating the house in 3 parts. With a central axis running through it, rooms emerge along one side, and the continuous corridor serves as the home's most active space. The original entrance features a distinct waiting area.
Cell like modules that function as private spaces for the now nucleated families are strung along a common passage - Saae connecting the street in the front to the Badi in the back with in-between courts.
Services like the kitchen, thakur ghara, hand pump, open up on the outside and wrap around the external facade.
Spatial Configuration
Renovations have divided the first floor into two separate sections. The thick chira walls, common in older construction, feature repeating niches in every room. Due to incremental changes over time, room sizes and heights vary. Flood prevention techniques and elevated plinths now provide affordance spaces where women can interact
Section A-A'
Section B-B'
A living room for family gatherings and guests, with an adjacent storage space, wash basin, and stairs leading to an open terrace for drying clothes and coconut fiber.
Section C-C'
Shared walls and terraces w neighbouring houses, Scope for a first floor incremental building.
Section D-D'
The oldest, unrenovated part of the house features an outdoor kitchen, used exclusively by the younger son's family.
Section E-E'
The waiting space in the beginning of the house is seen as a secondary threshold to one of the accesses of the house
Section F-F'
Transformation of Houseform