Perched on a hilltop in Mumbai, stands a house made of upcycled materials. India and its thrifty inhabitants are the inspiration behind Collage House, designed by local S+PS Architects. The home boasts an array of gems from the past, married together with present day materials and technologies. Recycled Burma teak, furniture from colonial times, carved mouldings and recycled tiles are orchestrated into a building of historical and futuristic depth.
“Living in Mumbai, it is impossible to ignore the informal settlements in the city", the architects said of their surrounds. "And if looked at closely there are many lessons to be learnt in frugality, adaptability, multi-tasking, resourcefulness and ingenuity."
According to Dezeen, the house follows the traditional Indian layout, with a central courtyard for privacy, and the capacity to house four generations of one family.
Inspired by the multiplicity of makeshift homes constructed from found materials, they went in search of salvageable materials that would encourage recycling in new ways.
But, they did not want to violate their inspiration. "An attempt has been made here to apply some of these lessons without romanticising or fetishizing them,” said the designers.
With this in mind, they brought together a plethora of old windows and doors salvaged from torn down buildings. These materials form a wall that encapsulates the living room, with a few maintaining their original function. Antique wooden columns and metal drainpipes decorate the open space.
"A visual language emerges that is of the found object, ad-hoc, eclectic, patched and collaged," the architects added.
Other features contributing to the overall home include the service elevator encased in decorative chain-link fencing. A rainwater-harvesting tank is surrounded by the rock gathered after excavation, and there is a wall in the courtyard that is covered entirely in shards of stone taken from a stonecutter’s workshop.
Not all the materials are recycled. Concrete walls and ceilings blend in with the old. In the same manner, the roof is studded with columns that are over one hundred years old, housed alongside energy-producing solar panels. Collage House was a 2015 House of the Year entrant, for the WAN Award.
