The vault catches the eye

A dining space built amidst lush green surroundings. By Nandhini Sundar

When an eatery is built amidst thick greens, water and surrounding hills, the dining experience proves to be totally relaxing, rejuvenating, not to mention romantic. But when the exhilarating setting is teamed with an expansive brick vault, leaving the walls totally open to connect with the landscape, the experience proves to be not only exquisite but also one filled with awe. 

The dine-in designed by Architect Senthil Kumar Doss of Play Architecture serves to be just that, built over a lush green valley in Sakleshpur. The 12-acre site is surrounded by green hills and a lake, where a stream branches off from the lake to snake through the terrain and thence into the thick rainforest landscape.  Roofed with an iconic 16.5m span brick vaulted structure, the 2,500 sq. ft restaurant is totally open visually on all sides, to feast on the abounding exterior greenery.

Timbrel vault 

“The Timbrel vault adopted here follows the traditional 800-year African technique that also became popular in Spain four centuries back yet lost its ground couple of centuries later. Fortunately it was revived by Raphael Guastavino in the United States and recently by Architect Peter Rich in South Africa”, explains Doss on the technique used in building the clay tile vault. 

The 150mm thick vault is built with thin laminated clay tiles which come in five layers, each layer made of 15mm clay tiles, with the tiles laid in different patterns so as to crisscross and strengthen the structure. “The layers serve as the structural sandwich with each direction of the pattern laid adding to the tensile strength”, explains Doss. The entire shape of the vault is built using thin steel rebars, which served as the temporary support to hold the first set of tiles. 

According to him, traditionally wood was used as the temporary support to create the form. “We chose thin 8mm steel grids instead of wood”, he clarifies. Incidentally, given his firm belief in putting waste to good use, Doss repurposed this form work in steel into furniture, railings and other components in the structure.