39 Gandhi Street

The Brief

One plan, built twice.

Both upper floors share the same premium layout and finish. The first floor is the second-floor plan adapted to Thangam's horoscope. The two homes differ only in their Vāstu tuning and the central light/vent shaft + roof lantern, which sit on Venkat's floor only.

The last plot of about 44 × 39 ft (≈ 1,716 sq ft). The one open side is the West — a permanent 15-ft path (never builds out) giving all the light, air & view; North, East & South each abut a neighbour's home. Entry is from the South (SW gate), but the home is turned to face East.

Independent homes

G+2

Stilt + two floors

2×

Fortuner parking

100%

Segregated utilities

Bright, not hot Every room daylit & cross-ventilated West-in → East cross-vent Mosquito-screened throughout Passive cooling first Sunshades on every opening No waterlogging, any level Vāstu-compliant for both Lift-served · step-free Elderly-friendly over time Future-ready: EV + solar

Outcome-based requirements (what the home must do / have). Exact positions, room dimensions, Vāstu placement and structure are left to the architect, structural engineer and Vāstu consultant — to be confirmed against the legal survey and the CMDA-sanctioned layout.

Defining moves

The decisions that shape the home

A handful of choices drive the whole design — from how the cars move to how the light arrives.

Parking

Two Fortuners, free to move

Both cars — each the size of a Toyota Fortuner — must park and leave independently. Either drives out without moving the other, turning entirely within the plot.

Structure

CMDA setback + cantilever

3' setback all round (6' combined to neighbours; the West faces a permanent 15-ft path) → 38×33 on every floor (~1,254 sq ft). Load‑bearing walls + an RCC core carry it, with the stilt parking covered by the floor above — no column juts into a room.

Independence

Fully segregated utilities

Two sumps, two borewells, two water motors, two meters — each home is financially independent. Only the structure and core are shared.

Owner floor only

Light/vent shaft + lantern

A slim mesh-screened shaft in Venkat's Great Room, capped by a glazed lantern that pokes through a cut-out in the steel roof — sky-light + stack-ventilation, with no open court to breed mosquitoes.

Entry

The Genkan

A recessed, shoe-off entry vestibule with seating and a secure grill gate — leave the main doors open for cross-ventilation while staying secure.

Climate

Kerala hollow brick

Hollow clay-brick walls that stand up to water and sun and suit the coastal climate, with double-wall air gaps and the deepest shading on the hot West face.

Comfort

Cool & bright by design

West glazing day-lights the home; cross-ventilation (West-in → East setback-out) + the owner's stack shaft move air; ceiling fans, hollow-brick insulation, cool + umbrella roofs and deep West shading keep it cool — AC is the back-up, not the first line.

Resilience

Weatherproof, every level

Raised plinth, floors graded to drains, sloped balconies with thresholds, full waterproofing, sized downpipes and drip moulds — no waterlogging anywhere, against sun, monsoon and salt air.

Future-ready

Lift & accessibility

A lift serves every floor — the shaft provided from day one — with step-free access and elderly-friendly design, plus EV- and solar-ready provisions throughout.

Two homes, one DNA

The same premium plan — adapted to each

Both floors are finished to the same apartment-grade standard. They differ only in Vāstu tuning and the owner's light/vent shaft. Both are turned to face East via the genkan.

First Floor · Premium

Thangam

Brother · Dhanusu / Jupiter

Venkat's premium plan, adapted to Thangam's Vāstu — same standard, same layout.
Master suite ~14×15 ft — King bed + Godrej almirah + dressing table → walk-in → spa bath 2.5×2.8 m (tub + separate rain shower + WC + basin).
Open great-room living & dining (dining opens straight off the living, kitchen behind); sliding-door kitchen with hidden utility + a South store for provisions.
Child ~14×10 ft (Queen + computer + dressing); guest/study ~14×10 ft (sofa-cum-bed/Queen + office); guest WC in the entry block; genkan; screened West verandah.
No light-shaft — that bay is floored as extra living / family space.

Vāstu (Jupiter): East-facing main door; pooja & study in the North-East; bed per his chart; warm yellow / gold / cream palette.

Second Floor · Premium

Venkat

Owner · Kanni / Mercury

Premium, special-requirements home (reference: Sobha Hartland Greens, Building 3, Dubai).
Master suite ~14×15 ft (King + Godrej almirah + dressing) → walk-in → spa bath; open great-room; sliding-door kitchen + South store.
Bedroom 2 ~14×10 ft (Queen + computer + dressing); home-office / guest ~14×10 ft (desk + exec chair); guest WC in the entry block; pooja niche NE (with exhaust for lamp/incense).
The Genkan shoe-off entry (grill gate + magnetic mesh) → main door opening West into the Great Room (home faces East).
Central light/vent shaft + roof lantern (mesh-screened) — the lantern pokes through a cut-out in the steel roof for sky-light + stack-vent.

Vāstu (Mercury): East-facing main door; pooja & office NE/E; greens, beige, earthy palette; bed head South.

Ground floor · Stilt

Parking, guest room & segregated services

Key: two cars, each the size of a Toyota Fortuner, must park and leave independently — either drives out without moving the other, turning inside the plot.

Each home parks its two-wheelers — a Royal Enfield Thunderbird and a Honda Activa — plus a couple of kids' cycles.
Two bays of 17 × 7 ft each, nose-out in a column-free pocket. Both cars park covered under the 38×33 cantilever and turn in the open setback strips (open to sky = driveway) — so the CMDA setback gives turning room without shrinking the parking. The stair/lift core sits East of the bays behind bollards, so no car path points at the steps.
The stair and a lift rise from here through all floors — the lift serving every level, with the shaft and structure provided from day one (so it can be installed now or added later without rebuilding). Load-bearing columns align stilt-to-roof; stairs ascend clockwise.
A step-free ground-level room for a guard or an elder to stay — a single bed, a small kitchen counter (slab) and an attached toilet.
Services kept fully separate per home: two sumps + two borewells + two motors, two meters, RWH recharge, electrical/inverter, pump rooms; multi-chamber septic + soak pit; reticulated anti-termite piping under the plinth.
A 10 ft sliding gate at the SW corner, facing South, opening into the full stilt; each home's own main door is turned to face East (via the genkan). Guard room SE, UG water NE, UG septic NW.
EV charging point provision for both cars.

Terrace & roof

Crowned by a roof lantern

Roof lantern over the owner's light/vent shaft — a pyramidal glazed lantern (glazed sides + hipped glass roof to a finial), openable, with a rain sensor; it pokes up through a cut-out in the steel umbrella roof so it still catches sky-light and exhausts hot air above the roof. The shaft and the roof's open sides are mosquito-meshed.
Mumty over the staircase for utility / hobby / overflow.
Weather-proofing "umbrella" roof — an elevated Galvalume steel-truss roof over the whole terrace doing two jobs: a seepage shield (wind-driven rain never reaches the top-floor slab) and a shaded ~8–10 ft thermal air-gap that drops the top floor 3–5 °C — paired with an insulated cool roof on the slab below.
Terrace waterproofing — full slab waterproofing, a raised parapet with drip, and proper slope / drainage to outlets.
Solar array on the umbrella roof (elevated, shade-free) with solar water heating; rooftop rainwater collection.
OHT (separate per home) feeding by gravity. The terrace is only the full steel umbrella roof (no terrace garden) — with a clothes-drying area in the shaded zone beneath it.

Reference: bainandirvine.co.uk

Specification

Materials & systems

Premium in both homes — built for Chennai's heat, humidity and salt air.

Glazing

Double-glazed Low-E sun-control throughout, with the deepest solar-control & shading on the West (the only glazed face); acoustic laminated to path-facing windows; obscured to baths. Coastal-grade frames. Mosquito mesh on every openable window, ventilator & door.

Doors

Internal doors are sliding (wall-track / pocket) — bedrooms, study/guest, utility & kitchen partition; bathrooms keep normal swing doors, and the main entry door is a solid secure swing door (multi-point lock + video door phone) opening West into the Great Room (home faces East), preceded by the stair-side M.S. grill gate and the genkan's magnetic mesh.

Mosquito / pest

Chitlapakkam is notorious for mosquitoes, so it's designed in: mesh on every opening, a fully screened West verandah, a screened light/vent shaft, magnetic mesh at the genkan, and no standing water anywhere; anti-termite piping under the plinth.

Air-conditioning

High-end split AC units (not VRF) in every room, with dedicated screened condenser (outdoor-unit) zones on the facade / terrace — off the balconies; plus safe facade-cleaning access for the full-height upper-floor glazing.

Lightning & earthing

Building lightning-protection + proper earthing, bonded to the steel umbrella roof and the rooftop solar.

Pooja room

White marble (sealed) floor; a small exhaust / vent for lamp & incense smoke.

Sunshades

RCC chajjas / overhangs / fins / jāli on the West openings (deepest here — the harsh afternoon sun), each with a drip mould; the cantilever & screened verandah shade the rest.

Passive cooling

Cross-ventilation (West-in → East/N setback-out) + the owner's stack shaft / lantern; ceiling-fan points in every room; hollow-brick insulation; cool + umbrella roofs; reflective West-face finishes — AC as back-up.

Weatherproofing

Raised plinth (≥ 2′); floors graded to drains; sloped balconies with thresholds; sized rainwater downpipes (first-flush + recharge); water-repellent West face; watertight sumps & sealed manholes — no ponding at any level.

Walls

Kerala hollow bricks — water- & sun-durable, insulating cores; double-wall + air gap on the hot faces.

Sound

Floating floors between levels + insulated party walls, so the two homes are quiet between each other.

Floors

Bedrooms — rigid-core SPC LVP (20+ mil wear layer, light–medium wood, matte/anti-skid); Living — vitrified (matte/anti-skid); Kitchen — anti-skid matte vitrified R10+; Pooja — white marble (sealed); Bathrooms — anti-skid vitrified R10–R11, mosaics in shower; screened West verandah — anti-skid outdoor granite (flamed); stairs — granite treads; stilt — VDF concrete.

Kitchens

Karungal (black granite) counters in both homes; moisture-safe carcass; soft-close hardware; chimney & hob.

Bathrooms

Full waterproofing; wall-hung WCs + concealed cisterns; rain showers; a tub in each master; stacked on a common wet wall.

Hot water

A VFD booster pump per home for constant rain-shower pressure; a 300 L solar water heater per home.

Water softening

A water softener + filtration per home on the borewell supply (Chennai water is hard/saline) — protects rain showers, glazing, fittings, geysers & tiles from scaling and stains.

Services

Piped copper gas from a ground gas bank; commercial-grade electrical SLD; CCTV, video door phone, intercom, smart-locks; structured cabling.

Pre-plan in the drawings

Appliances & electronics

Accounted for in the masonry and electrical drawings — so no surface-wiring or cramped retrofits later.

55-inch TV focal wallConcealed HDMI + surround-sound conduit loop.

Master-bedroom TV pointSocket + concealed HDMI/coax to a floating console.

Double-door fridge alcove~3.5 × 3 ft with a dedicated heavy-duty socket.

Concealed laundry niche~3 × 3 ft, louvered, with water inlet, drain & grounded socket.

Inverter / battery nicheVentilated, near the core, pre-wired.

Central Wi-Fi router nicheWired to the CAT-6 backbone, mounted high.

Before sanction drawings

To verify

Survey & soil

Legal survey + soil test — boundaries, bearing capacity, foundation and plinth level.

CMDA approvals

Setbacks, FSI, height limit and regularisation of the private path access.

Vehicles

Confirm the family's actual vehicle sizes against the parking requirement.

Vāstu

Engage a Vāstu practitioner to fix the exact entry and room placements on the dimensioned drawing.

Detailed floor plans, elevations and sanction drawings to be produced by the appointed architect from these requirements and the reference images. This document is the brief, not the drawing set. Plan B (CMDA fallback): if any additional floor is rejected, revert to this stilt + 2 structure.

References

Owner-floor finish standard — Sobha Hartland Greens, Building 3, Dubai.
Roof lantern / skylight — bainandirvine.co.uk.
Vehicle sizing — Toyota Fortuner (car); Royal Enfield Thunderbird & Honda Activa (two-wheelers).
Plan B (CMDA fallback) — home_plan_b.pdf.