Set within a citrus plantation in Abohar, Barkat by the Lake emerges from an intimate dialogue between land, water, climate, and craft. Designed by groupDCA, the house began not with construction, but with excavation, consolidating the site’s water bodies into a reservoir that became its climatic instrument, visual anchor, and source of building material. Excavated earth was tested, stabilised, and transformed into 600 mm-thick load-bearing rammed-earth walls, developed in collaboration with Hunnarshala alongside brick vaults, local stone, concrete, and steel. Oriented along the reservoir, the house unfolds through shaded terraces, sunken decks, and spaces that move between communal life and quiet retreat, while its material palette of rammed earth, oak, Mandana, Kadappa, and cemento flows seamlessly from outside to within. Passive strategies work at every scale, from the reservoir’s microclimate and thermal mass to radiant flooring that draws directly from its stable water temperature, naturally ventilated spaces, winter-sun terraces, and insulated terracotta vaults.