Source: Residence : Mrs. Lakshmi, Padmanabhnagar
The Background:
This is the residence designed for Mrs. Lakshmi and her family of three, consisting of self, husband & daughter. This family has traveled widely and is well read, the husband being a professor at IIM & Mrs. Lakshmi being a teacher in Delhi Public School. Theres is a very social family by nature with strong family ties which entertains friends & relatives quite frequently. Yet every member of the family pursues his/her own interests and requires time off in a private space to unwind. Their wide travelling has made them very open to new architectural concepts & trends in design.
As character of the family plays a very important role in development of design of a home, such background notes have been taken into consideration of the architecture.
The Requirements:
Mrs. Lakshmi required a
duplex residence housing 3 bedrooms with an attached study for their daughter’s room. Apart from this, all other amenities such as attached bath, study area, sit-outs, barbecue space, etc., were provided with a servant’s living unit.
The Site Conditions:
The site was South Facing of size 40’ x 50’. On all three sides, i.e. east, north & west, massive constructions in excess of 30’ height surround the plot. The northern & eastern neighbors had abutted the site considerably making this Bangalore Architect rethink the overall strategy of design. The property could be accessed through a narrow road which imposed other limitations as to visibility of the house & its access. This posed a challenge for design of the facade as the client also insisted that the basic layout of the house be as per Vaastu.
Ground Floor Layout:
First Floor Layout:
The Front Facade
It is a contemporary design incorporating positives & negatives with colour as the highlighting tool. The overhead water tank was incorporated into the façade as can be seen in the tower-like projection painted in blue.
A night shot of the Front Facade shows strategically placed lighting fixtures that highlight certain portions of the facade while the rest of the building remains in silhouette. The colors can be seen complementing each other. At every junction care has been taken that different colors intersect with either grey or white to retain the colour balance & harmony. Intricate steelwork subtly enhances the building by providing a sleekness, a unique characteristic of steel. Basically, the facade is a play of colors.
The Good Life:
A private sit-out with hard – scaped exposed brickwork as flooring & hoordie block wall cladding added a touch of the ‘rustic’ to the architecture. It was not possible to have a garden because the sit-out was located on the sump tank. The sit-out has been interspersed with stone benches & a stone teapoy to further add to the rustic touch. The sit-out also acts as a space expander to the living room.
The External Staircase:
A combination of steel & stone provided a sleek & elegant look to this external staircase. The stone slabs provide a good grip when wet and the stairs take one through the roof garden with china mosaic pattern. And then onto the barbecue space on the roof.
Best Use of MDF:
A fresh approach was taken in design of doors. MDF, a versatile material was used to clad the conventional flush door. Flexibility of MDF allowed this Bangalore Architect to superimpose ‘clean lines’ on the veneer ‘canvas’.
The Internal Staircase:
The internal staircase reflects of a product based on careful thinking with the objective of imparting ‘definition’ into the space. A small lighted niche was created to make a good place to showcase artifacts.
The Design Decision:
The client had insisted on Vaastu and the big residences on either side of the plot of land were major factors in planning. Hence all light & ventilation required had to be tapped from within our site. For this, open spaces were juxtaposed next to closed spaces which meant that covered areas could be extended into the outdoor progressively which increased the spaces physically. A light-well located above the staircase taps abundant light & disperses it into the living, dining & foyer space imparting liveliness to the space. Sit-outs, gardens & roof gardens were integrated into the house to provide green spaces as a relief to the urban neighborhoods.
The Private Garden:
By integrating a private garden into the master bedroom, the husband (a voracious reader of books, periodicals & journals) could enjoy greater privacy and while there are guests in the living room.
The Access Ways:
They have been built connecting either side of the building behind the front compound wall. And liberally sprinkled with pebbles & cobble stones with a green patch on the side.
The Kitchen:
This
Bangalore Architect designed a fully loaded kitchen & dining area. It was combined to optimize the space.
The Barbecue:
The architect also incorporated a retro structure in conjunction with a thoroughly modern building. It formed a small covered party space.
The Development in Z-Axis:
A
contemporary design such as this is very difficult to visualize using only paper & pencil. As most of the design elements are in the form of planes originating at different points, it had to be modelled in the 3rd dimension to determine the distances between the planes in order to get the right balance. After the development of the model, it was evident that different colours do not intersect with each other but only to neutral white & grey. The level of skylight slab was dropped to provide a cozy barbecue area on the terrace & also helped this
Bangalore Architect bring more light into the stairs area. This drop also helped channel the terrace water into the skylight depression & from there onward with the use of a RCC spout. The water outlet was dropped onto the roof garden with china mosaic patterned water collectors to the chain and then to the drain.
The Facade Development:
Due to pursuance of Vaastu in their design decisions, the location of the overhead tank had to be towards the southwest corner. Being conscious of the fact that an ugly tank on top would mar the façade, it was decided to integrate the tank into the building itself.
The Eastern Facade:
Wall planes intersected each other at various points which were highlighted by the use of color. Basically, the vertical wall planes were stacked at different points on the plan & raised to different heights that gave rise to positive & negative spaces. As this facade was mostly covered by an adjoining house, it provided considerable relief for a person walking on the driveway all the way to the sit-out in the form of varied widths which masked the linearity of the space.
The Right and Wrong:
The colour scheme selected was experimented on the model itself which the architect found to be too drastic for their comfort. However, they arrived at a conclusion that it was because the model being so crude, the colours were not harmonious. Hence, extra care was taken at the time of plastering to get exact plumb levels, true walls & perfect right angles & edges as the façade depended heavily on the skill of the masons. The end result was, the Architect was right.
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