Multi-storey residence, Bharatpur

Bharatpur is hot, flat and still thickening, and a plot on a widening street is worth keeping flexible.

The house is built as a simple four-storey frame with a ground floor left open and serviced so it can be let as shops later without touching the family floors above. Balconies are recessed on the street face to shade the rooms behind them through the terai summer, and the stair is pushed to the flank so every floor can be closed off as a separate household.