The site is surrounded by a pine forest in the region of Barog. The local folklore of a British appointed charge for digging the railway tunnel, Colonel Barog is what gives the town its name. The tunnel and the railway station are intact as relics of that time and offer themselves as clues for how to build sensitively in such contexts. The new age ideas of treading lightly on the earth were considered as postulates for building here too, but with the average slope of 40 degrees, to perch lightly would have resulted in shadowed underbellies; signature of contemporary constructions. Cut and filling is used in the lightest means instead, using split levels and yet generating small spans. The 1.5 acre resort offers a bakehouse, tea house and bath house, in an upward trail, for the wanderer that stumbles upon it. 9 sets of rooms adjoin these facilities, scattered about the site’s landscape. The site is steep and the project celebrates the physical challenge of this condition. To hike up the mountain like a Billy Goat- is where the name draws from.
The conditions of the site shape the imaginations of this project. Nostalgic to the typical movement patterns of cities in the Himalayan region, the project seeks to capture the spirit of a Himalayan settlement. The generosity of Chaugans that restore leisures of time, The clustered hawkers lavishing food and craft and, the snug village houses with niches and small wooden windows; all cultivate the atmospheres of Himalayan Habitats.They work with the vegetation. Facts of simple pleasure which are left behind in modern luxury resorts. A green metal bench next to a cliff, well placed, with an absence of whirring sounds of generators can work wonders. The idea is simple; to preserve what is good and to make what is missing.
