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Architecture

2023

There is a different charm to work with local materials and techniques. This house showcases how a culturally rich, yet contemporary design outcome can be achieved without having to deviate from our roots.

The apartment is an old family home for a traditional close family in a quaint heritage neighborhood of South Mumbai (near August Kranti Maidan). The cross ventilated windows of the apartment overlooking beautiful jackfruit & mango trees. Her aim was to reflect as much of this greenery into the home.

Her brief was to achieve a home that has an old world charm. The family wanted a space that would be identified as timeless yet contemporary. The idea was to adapt to the nature around using as much local materials making the most of the available space as possible, while providing for all the modern amenities and future ready technologies.

As the family is a modern Kutchhi Gujarati family, the concept was to embrace as much of those cultural nuances, especially those of traditional Kutchhi structures, the Bhungas. She was inspired by the beautifully lime plastered interiors of these Bhungas. A distinct highlight of these structures is the varying hand shaped niches and the rounded edge detailing. They also have a lot of intricately done inlay work. With a fresh take, she sought to incorporate all these little details into the overall design of the home.

Mumbai,Maharashtra,India

Architects	:	Studio In Elements
Area	:	1050 sq. ft.
Year	:	2023
Website	:	https://www.instagram.com/studioinelements/

Living room of The Seed by Studio In Elements

The apartment is part of an old structure - The family was hence reluctant to make any significant updates to the civil structure of the apartment while making utmost use of the available apartment area. She sought to use the wall area to incorporate the design niches while also creating hidden storage spaces. The entrance passage was abutted to create the arched sitting space within the wall area. Similarly the dining area incorporated design niches to provide for fresh plants within the wall design. She has also created niches within the walls of the 3 bedrooms, which allow space for appliances like washing machine, television, storage Some niches have been incorporated just to add to the aesthetic of the house as well.

The home opens into a narrow passage, which frames the Srinathji painting at the far end of the hall – installed on a textural Indian stone. To highlight it further, she added solid wood and brass details to the framing wall edges.

She tried to make the most of the traditional size of the kitchen on one side of the entrance while the other side opened into a bedroom incorporating a large diwan sitting (also doubling up as a bed). The long mirror in the room in the bedroom makes the otherwise compact space room seem bigger. The design for the main hall cum dining area leveraged the very generous cross ventilation windows overlooking the jackfruit and mango trees. Certain pieces like the TV unit, Dining console have been designed inhouse to match the aesthetic of the house.

TV Unit of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Dining of The Seed by Studio In Elements

From the living room there is a small ancillary space which opens up to the two large bedrooms on either side. As the family dogs love the sun, she custom designed a dog-bed for the two of them and fit it into the niche next to the small window. The elderly grandmother of the family uses bedroom 2, and has been designed to fit her requirements, while retaining the overall aesthetic charms of the apartment.

She was clear from the very beginning and as also preferred by the family, they wanted to celebrate the natural and local materials, as much as possible. The flooring across the apartment was accentuated with different unconventional, yet very earthy limestones - Bhura grey limestone for the living spaces and chocolate limestone (aka Andhra stone) and olive limestone (Shahbad stone) for the bathrooms. Since limestone has natural colour variations, she tried to further highlight these by using the stones to create different mosaics across the house.

White Indian marbles in varying finishes have been used for paneling (TV panel, entrance niche, behind Srinathji’s painting), window sills and bathroom walls. Instead of paint, hand applied lime plaster features across the entire home. (The home is paint free). The solid wood elements, like the frames and shutters are crafted using old repurposed Burma Teak, hand polished with linseed oil, another age-old technique. The hand crafted solid wood wardrobe shutters have inlays of hand woven rattan and linen. Solid brass inlays have been used across the home to further add to the aesthetic.

Dining of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Kitchen of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Bedroom 1 of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Probably since it was Studio In Element’s first independent project, orchestrating the whole process seemed a bit daunting. It really is one thing to design a space but another to play the role of a project manager. Quite a challenge and a lot of learnings for a young architect like her. Her friend Ar. Rishit Jain was a great help with tackling many of these challenges of the project. He also helped her with quite a few technical details. (She would like to credit him with guiding and assisting her through execution).

The niches in the dining wall have live plants and were quite an engineering task to execute. She had to get custom stainless steel planters made that would sit concealed within the wood finish external planter casing. The solid wood and brass inlay edge details in the living room frame both, the entrance passage and the Srinathji’s painting on both ends. The painstakingly crafted solid wood wardrobe shutters (all with repurposed Burma Teak) The puppy niche is definitely a personal favorite. For her, it is always important to take into consideration the preferences and requirements of their 4-legged family members.

Bedroom 1 of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Puppy's Niche of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Bedroom 2 of The Seed by Studio In Elements

Incorporating age-old techniques and building materials from India’s traditional heritage into a modern city home is not a common ask as most families aspire for a contemporary look. However, the end result proved her conviction that there is so much to learn & leverage from their architecture legacy providing for utmost comfort and luxury with minimal harm caused to the environment or nature. The comforting pleasant feel of limestone on bare feet, the cool feel of lime finished walls or the rustic feel of traditional yet enduring Burma teak wood makes the overall experience most worthwhile and satisfying.

The home not only celebrates local materials but also local and handmade crafts. From the kuttchi hand embroidered morii custom designed art pieces, to the hand woven rattan shutters and handmade decorative lights, have all been custom sourced to complete the house. She has strived to support local craftsmanship and hope to continue to do the same with future projects.