home review REDESIGNED

3March 2014 Home Review

2 Home Review March 2014

Rahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti, principals at _Opolis Architects, take generous hints from the surroundings to craft a breeze-happy home (cum art repository) in the tranquil environs of Goa. Imagined across a white and brown colour palette, the residence is simple and earthy in its manifestation with an inside-outside connect forming the fulcrum of the design.

Materials and forms seamlessly migrate from the façade to the interiors, with the insides revealing free-flowing spaces that are spatially transparent. Using an assemblage of courts, the designers connect several enclosed spaces conjuring an unassuming paradise that reveals itself gradually. This reticent home is a tribute to less saying more, but not without an inspiring personality that doesn’t go unnoticed.

Designer Shabnam Gupta’s joie de vivre shines through magnificently in her projects. Defined by an eclectic collection of furniture, a mélange of materials, crisp detailing and exuberant bursts of colour, Shabnam’s projects string together contrasting elements into a unified whole.

This home in Pune, where pop-art meets old Rajasthani opulence, is just another marvellous example of work from her firm, The Orange Lane. The residence is a striking balance between the old and the new, where materials, colours and diversity celebrate a zest for life.

You could define the intervention done by Studio Weave as a renovation project, restoration or installation. They all fit the bill! The designers were commissioned to transform the façade of a building that faced a hospital. Their take on it was to create a ten-storey high quirky installation, amalgamating bronze pipes and sixty large and small trumpets designed to transport music! This creation certainly defies any convention and manages to create a fantastical landscape that engages your attention like few other things can.

Editor’s Letter

March 2014 Home Review 1

of materials, crisp detailing and exuberant bursts of colour, Shabnam’s projects string together contrasting elements into a unified whole.

This home in Pune, where pop-art meets old Rajasthani opulence, is just another marvellous example of work from her firm, The Orange Lane. The residence is a striking balance between the old and the new, where materials, colours and diversity celebrate a zest for life.

You could define the intervention done by Studio Weave as a renovation project, restoration or installation. They all fit the bill! The designers were commissioned to transform the façade of a building that faced a hospital. Their take on it was to create a ten-storey high quirky installation, amalgamating bronze pipes and sixty large and small trumpets designed to transport music! This creation certainly defies any convention and manages to create a fantastical landscape that engages your attention like few other things can.

Rahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti, principals at _Opolis Architects, take generous hints from the surroundings to craft a breeze-happy home (cum art repository) in the tranquil environs of Goa. Imagined across a white and brown colour palette, the residence is simple and earthy in its manifestation with an absolute inside-outside connect forming the fulcrum of the design.

Materials and forms seamlessly migrate from the façade to the interiors, with the insides revealing free-flowing spaces that are spatially transparent. Using an assemblage of courts, the designers connect several enclosed spaces conjuring an unassuming paradise that reveals itself gradually. This reticent home is a tribute to less saying more, but not without an inspiring personality that doesn’t go unnoticed.

Designer Shabnam Gupta’s joie de vivre shines through magnificently in her projects. Defined by an eclectic collection of furniture, a mélange


My interest in water colours and building models as a child did stem a part of my inclination towards design and architecture

Cover StoryRahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti, principals at _Opolis Architect, take generous hints from the surroundings to craft a breezehappy home in the tranquil environs of Vasco,Goa

Art FormThe Kaleidoscopic installations by Dutch artist Suzan Drummen are luminous, colourful and short-lived, like rainbows.

The House that became a CanvasDesigned by Shabnam Gupta this residence in Pune is a striking balance between the old and the new, where materials, colours and diversity celebrate a zest for life.

PeriscopeHe turned an envelope of unwrapped paper into t he design of his own residence, a look at Frank Gehry’s iconic sketches.

The Lullaby FactoryStudio Weave breathes fantasy into the children’s ward at one of London’s oldest hospitals with their giant sized installation.

Snapshots of the din and cacophony, a celebration called life.

ON - SITEREPORT

A look at ‘Design Do’, a niche yet outstanding design communion which served as a barometer of Mumbai’s design conscience

A design destination

Back in Time

The Eight Bit Wonder

by Kamat & Rozario Architecture in

‘Tetris’ and ‘Space Invaders’, the eight bit games from the 80’s

UncoveredMumbai-based Archilogics combines unconventional form with highly sensitive space-building and comes up with visually striking projects

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MICHAELFOYER


A Contemporary OasisThis picturesque ‘Fobe House’ in Morocco designed by Guilhem

and producer, can be termed as an artistic and architectural beacon.

Maison & Objet 2014 DelightsA look at the Maison&Objet fair which brought together design

witness burgeoning creativity. Aakansha Rajhans’The Joy of Designing

Get your hands on the latest products to hit the market

Security and Automation

Product DesignerItalian designer Matteo Zorzenoni tests the limits of everyday materials by combining them with unexpected partners.The result is often surprising, but always elegant

My Tailor Home, a studio in Mumbai celebrates a new relationship between India and France through bespoke décor pieces that exude the highest level of French craftsmanship

The Magic of the MandarinLocated on the River Rhône within the city’s shopping, historic and business districts, the Mandarin Oriental, Geneva will satiate even the most fastidious world traveller

Architecture Paradigm

The Contemporary Indian HouseholdDesigned by architect Pranav Raiji ‘8C Ratna Aastha’ is a delightful residence which is traditional yet contemporary.

GREEN SPEAK

Tailored Care

Marketplace

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Home Review March 20144

55 March 2014 Home Review

In Vasco, Goa, is a serene home built to house an art-loving family and its treasure of carefully collected pieces. Mumbai-based _Opolis Architects has cleverly added subtle doses of drama in the scheme to accord it a certain added interest as well.

Vasco, short for Vasco da Gama, is a serene spot in the otherwise touristy bustle of Goa. This town conjures up images of the beach (but of course!), of markets full of fresh produce and of fishermen lost in time with their fishing nets and tides.There is no doubt that this home takes generous hints from its surroundings, and has been lovingly built to be a peaceful retreat as well as a veritable treasure trove of art.

The owners of the house are consummate art collectors and followers, so the home naturally had to fulfil the demands of not just their utilitarian needs, but also of their deep-running interest. The design of the house reflects this split in priorities very well, and the team from Mumbai-based _Opolis Architects can easily take a bow.

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The beautiful exposed laterite walls, perfect in any earthy set-up, are not just on the external walls but on some internal walls as well, like in the living room

A beautiful open-courtyard approach has made possible this division of spaces, which conveniently affords privacy and sociability. “The bays are separated by courts that are open and not enclosed, lending a spatial transparency to the place. The spaces unfold gradually like layers as there are several courts that connect all the built enclosed spaces. The massing of the main wing is such that it slides horizontally in two directions and spaces are created as a result of this tectonic shift.” states Rahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti.

There has been a dedicated effort at maintaining a ‘soft’ look for the house, so hard surfaces and contours will be hard to come by here. The pervious paver cover for the driveway, therefore, is only a practical consideration and not really an aesthetic one. Another critical aspect of the design is its ‘inside-outside’ perspective, where materials and forms have found continuation from the façade to the interiors, so as to retain a sense of oneness. The whole house is split into two specific blocks - one private, and the other public.

The entranceway is defined by a cover of bushy green, breeze-happy plant and tree cover. The façade itself is simple and earthy, and mostly imagined across a white-and-brown tone range.

The entranceway itself is a mighty good-looking arrangement - it is a cantilevered structure, with bevelled edges and vertical wooden wings, and was intentionally built to resemble a passageway to heaven, It is quite a score if a home’s entranceway can set up solide expectations of elegance right from the first step it.



The interior scheme of the house is centred around the idea of free-flowing spaces, so the floor swathe is generous and largely unobtrusive.

The seamless concrete flooring is a brilliant effort in this direction – it accords the rooms a sweeping, carefree character.

The public section of the home is populated by the brilliant, canopied entranceway; the meditation segment; the living room, the kitchen and the services; and the dining room.

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The cream and brown combination afforded by the polished wood partner enhances the effect of the art on the walls.

Separating the dining space from the living room is a grid of ‘Shivlingas’ set amidst the gravel; an elegant frangipani tree hovers over them – a smart installation addition to an art-focused home.

The abode is an 8,000 sq. ft. marvel within an estate. It is flushed with natural light, is non-frilly and largely unassuming in style, albeit with a solid personality.

Being in this home means being in constant touch with the outside; the beautiful sense of enclosure here is

never claustrophobic. The team from _Opolis Architects has always been extremely sensitive to the understated tastes of the residents of the home, but has still managed to build a distinct looking abode. This aspect is the most resolute achievement of this project.





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home review REDESIGNED