West Stream Cottage, Mohraan

Mohraan Farms is a triangular piece of land with streams flowing on all three sides and densely forested with a variety of native flora and fauna. This site is the closest to what we can call an oasis amidst the barren terrain around. Within this natural setting are a couple of young engineers and their families who are natural farmers by passion. With a strong urge to retain, conserve and propagate the flora and fauna on this parcel of land, all of them work along the lines of sustainability to such an extent that they have even left their Mumbai abodes permanently to settle in this natural reserve.

The fourth structure built in Mohraan overlooking the perennial stream is the ‘West Stream cottage’. These are beautifully designed cottages with open stilt, a bed on the first floor, and a huge balcony overlooking the perennial stream. The earlier cottages had an issue with radiation on the eastern side cottages. The roof overhangs were taken 3ft, which was standard in the Palghar region to protect from the heavy sun, and rain, which was not sufficient here. In the other project here, the skill set of the local masons was not in sync with the design. The design was quite complicated and there were many issues faced during construction leading to leakage issues. The owners wanted to construct a cottage this time, which would tackle mainly these two issues.

The cottages were built within the area and budgetary constraints, but were aesthetically an upgrade from the older structures. Based on all the constraints mentioned, CSEB was chosen as the material of choice for the walls. The roof overhangs were extended to 3ft in the previous structures, but in this project, it was extended to 6ft. For the roof, we didn’t want to use the local masons because of the issues faced in the earlier structures. Our carpenter team was also not available due to covid issues. Hence, we went for a steel structure. A contractor who was well versed in this executed it fast and well.

The previous structure was built fully by the same set of masons. In this project, we appointed local contractors for very specialized jobs like tiling, and roof structure. Masons from iskcon came on site and trained local workers to make the blocks, and also in pointing on CSEB structures. This really helped in the quality of construction, which was a step up, compared to the previous projects.

Climatology was taken into account in the design. The toilets were on the east to give a buffer from the east sun to the guest rooms and tackle the east-side heating issue. There was wind coming in from the west, and there was a balcony with overhangs acting as a buffer. The balcony was also needed for stream viewing. On the North side, a small window was for daylighting, and on the south side, a small window was kept for cross ventilation. Openings were kept to a minimum to reduce expenses and also keep the sun out. The dormers were in the east-west direction. The west side wind blows through this dormer and takes out the hot air in the room through the east side. With these design elements, we are able to achieve a 5o difference in temperature from the outside.