Kusum was a project that began with a family seeing PDC’s previous work and, finding it resonating with them so well, that they desired for an exact replica as their own house. But with contexts of the two plots being different, the architects realised that their response also needed to be suitably changed. Therein lay the challenge — to convince the family that the design that would be tailor-made for their home would be just as special as the one they’d fallen in love with. Other than that, the architects say, there was carte blanche when it came to the design; the clients reposed utmost trust in the architects they’d entrusted their home with.
The architecture is clean-lined, simple and fairly extroverted. A large canopy shelters the lower levels of the ground-plus-two structure and forms a defining element of the elevation. At one point, the canopy is punctured to form a pergola of sorts for the deck below. Internally, owing to the demands made on the ground floor, the courtyard of the project that had excited the clients, was reinterpreted as a puncture in its ceiling that connects with the level above. Here, a balcony-like courtyard takes care of the family’s aspirations. As the setback areas in the plot were negligible, and the surrounding milieu was densely populated, the structure was opened up with the help of a glazed triple-height volume on its east-facing front facade that invites light into the dining on the ground floor, the lobby of the first floor and the bar on the second floor.
Colour and materials create distinct juxtapositions and compositions throughout the house. The common area is distinguished by an ink blue ceiling with a black outline and lines rendered in MDF. The lines tie different functionalities together, and also exaggerate the dimensions of the rooms. In the mother’s room, the headboard of the bed is rendered in MDF with an olive green tone of colour, while in the master bedroom wooden blinds are used as the main highlighting material with an NR mirror and a lush plantation at the back of the bed. Designer vitrified mosaic and wooden patterns energise the son’s room grey-painted room. His sister, on the other hand, has brick cladding and wallpaper in her private domain. The guest room is dressed in greyish blue tones, and features NR tinted mirror on the bed headboard and TV unit.
Furniture is a mix of tailor-made and bought-off-the-shelf: all fixed pieces are bespoke, while the loose ones have been sourced from international markets.
The project is an example of successful channelising of the clients’ aspirations and crafting a solution that was appropriate for both, the context and the customer.
Fact file Project: Kusum
Location: Aurangabad
Area: 3,250 sq ft
Design firm: Portico Design Concepts Principals: Gopal and Shruti Tanwani
Design team: Snehal Mangate, Aditi Daigavane, Nikita Agrawal, Kajal Kinger and Shwetam Jain
Details of the house Bedrooms: Five
Rooms on the ground floor: Entrance foyer, living, dining, kitchen, mother’s room and powder room
Rooms on the first floor: Master bedroom, son’s room and daughter’s room Rooms on the Second floor: Guest bedroom, bar area, home theatre and terrace sit-out
Materials :
Floors: Italian marble
Ceiling: POP false ceiling and MDF fins Walls: Wall punning
Photograph Credits : Photographix India
