Elitist Leanings

By Savitha Hira

Photography:  Courtesy F.S.N.D Architects

Reinstating the role of design as an influential tool – in the look, feel and mood of a space, F.S.N.D. Architects brandish it to carve a stylish home with a view...

It becomes even more challenging for a designer when he is put on a pedestal and is expected to deliver the ‘most wonderfully unique’ home that is going to make the client immeasurably house proud. Working on this ‘simple’ yet ‘demanding’ brief by the client, Form Space n Design Architects instil the “Wow” factor into 3500 sq ft. of penthouse space in a Mumbai suburb. 

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The designer Sohil Valia incorporates three basic tenets – optimizing the provision of the terrace space adjoining the living room and the splendid view of the suburban skyline, he establishes an inside-outside equation by opening up the kitchen also, making the space highly interactive; inculcates a luxurious feel highlighted by a sculptural staircase element complemented by a water body and some discerning works of art; and finally, creates distinct pockets of visual imagery and threads them together.

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Compositional elements via floor and ceiling patterns, pendulum and other lights, innovative touches of common craft, and a remarkable sense of colour anoint the home that is cleverly neutrally bathed in varying hues of umber, almost instantaneously generating a classy feel. Colour is pertinently distributed – in a painting here, a cushion there; flooring here, artefact there etc.

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Speaking of distinctive frames: the dining area is highlighted by the unconventional powder toilet with inserts of white resin glass that glows from the lights within; the family room on the upper floor is wrapped (ceiling and walls) in a collage of differently-sized monochromatic squares; while the master bedroom is designed with a leather-tiled bed backdrop.

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Consistency prevails in cloning the design motifs from one area to another: sustaining a simplistic vocabulary and playing on the senses with hues, tones and materials. One such being an insert of the traditional jali. Incorporated in different forms, on different surfaces, the jali is added as a partition between living –dining; as an element of the mirror frame backdrop to the dining area; in an engraved format in back-painted glass acting as a dining table top; as glass etching for the main security door, and as cut vinyl in the ceiling of the entrance lobby.

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Certain design elements stand apart as subtle highlights, reiterating chic, like, the glass canopy that acts as a partial covering to the doors and windows abutting the living and kitchen; or the differently coloured enhanced detailing of the stringer staircase.

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Overall, the design vocabulary is restrained, opting for the tried and tested; showcasing contemporaneity without compromising on the innate warmth of home and hearth.

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