“We want a place that looks rich and classy and yet it should look like a home. Now it’s up to you!” This was a very straight forward brief from our client with their limited budget. They wanted a home that is classy, spacious and peaceful with lots of storage. They wanted an inherent richness to the place without losing a sense of home.
This apartment on the top floor (3 floor) had dense tree cover on the eastern side visible from the balcony. However, the apartment had no cognizance of its beautiful surroundings due to inherent flaws in planning.
DESIGN APPROACH: Every house has its own story. Houses often come with its own agenda. For a few, a house is place that brings out the true self of their own. For some, the house is a place to showcase their aspirations and desires. Without being prejudiced about the way one sees his abode, architect’s role is to create a space that resonates with the soul of the people who are going to inhabit that space. This house was conceived around the aspirations, showing class without exhibition. A place that doesn’t shout out wealth but doesn’t shy away from the gloss either. It was particularly a challenge for us because our own sensibilities lie in extremely simple, rustic and earthy aesthetics. It was rather a challenge for us to create a sense of a ‘home’ although it may aspire class in a very profound way and to accommodate all the storage requirements. Setting up an aesthetics with right amount of gloss clubbed with cement finished walls keeping intact a home like quality.
To meet the client’s brief, the place needed some major modifications in the existing layout since it lacked a coherent language binding the house together.
The key move was enclosing balcony with a tall window and a sky light placed at the top of the parapet wall above. It not only brought in some beautiful filtered eastern light but also brought grandeur to the overall space. This move made the living room more spacious and exposed the entire house to the beautiful tree cover around.
Restricting the material palette to marble, wood, polished brass against the backdrop of cement wall texture helped us achieve a coherent aesthetic language throughout the house making it clutter-free and hence more spacious.
Marble was used as a primary flooring material creating a sense of expanse and also bringing in the needed richness.
Polished brass was introduced in controlled manner making the overall space a bit classy. However, the gloss of metal was balanced using contrasting concrete finish walls keeping tactile quality of the space intact making it more human and home like!
We often try to create an aesthetic imbibed with structural logic, as our mind understand these aspects at subconscious level. Every aesthetic is resultant of the tangible and intangible forces. Arch being the structurally most stable form, it brought a certain degree of calmness to overall space (as there’s no tension in the way even the load is transferred). This feel was further enhanced by curved edges to give softness to the overall space.
Another challenge was the amount of storage needed in the house without cluttering the place. Walls were replaced by storage units wherever possible to save more space.
The entire wall behind the master bed with brass finish is actually a storage unit for all small things.
The common wash basin is also hidden behind the wall in living room.
All these strategies helped in de-cluttering the house
The best feedback we got from the client when they moved-in was: “I find a great amount of peace in the house. I don’t have to worry if I am alone in the house”, said the client’s mom.
This is when we thought our work here was. This is how a positive impact can be created with thoughtfully crafted homes.
Furniture: Entire furniture has been customized by our studio.
LOCATION: Pune
MONTH & YEAR OF COMPLETTION: MAY 2020
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1081 Sq.Ft.
PHOTO CREDITS: Talib Chitalwala
