Monastic Field, a concrete family home by a Jain temple in Baleshwar

Roomoor's Monastic Field sits within the grounds of a Jain temple in Baleshwar, and was built for the family who gave the land for that temple in 2005. With hundreds of visitors passing each day, the studio kept the house low and largely closed to the outside: a cluster of small concrete volumes rather than one big object. Senior partner Mahendra Gusain and design partner Dhruv Gusain say the challenge was to give the house a fitting public edge while letting the temple remain the main building.

At its heart is a hall under a pyramidal concrete roof, with a skylight at the tip and clerestory windows on all four sides. Seating sits beneath it among slender concrete columns, flowing into the dining area, library and an outdoor verandah. The kitchen, study, bathrooms and three bedrooms are set in rectilinear blocks arranged in a pinwheel around this centre.

The concrete answers both the permanence of the temple's white stone and the rock-cut viharas, or monastic dwellings, of the Deccan Plateau. Red sandstone forms the garden walls and patios, while inside there is dark wood joinery and stone floors. The architects wanted the material to recede so that light becomes, in their words, "the primary material".

This is a private home, so there is nothing to visit, but it is a thoughtful read for anyone curious about how a house can sit modestly beside a sacred site.

Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 11 October 2026. Read the original

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