A Dialogue About Design

By creating a stunning envelope that is a thing of beauty by itself and layering it with the right furniture, art and accessories, Atelier dnD design a home that is timeless in appeal for a Mumbai-based family of four.

How does one begin to design space? What is that one thing that sparks the imagination of a design professional? Is it an element, a concept, or something else? For architects Shobhan Kothari and Anand Menon, principals at Atelier dnD, it’s the organizational aspect that really gets the mental machinery clanking. “There could be different take-off points when it comes to design. A stunning piece of art could be one, for instance,” says Shobhan. “Largely, our clients do not fall into that bracket. As architects, we like to think of ourselves as creators of space, as interior architects rather than interior designers — which boils down eventually to a cosmetic veneering of surfaces. The first exercise we do in our studio is ask ourselves, what is the novelty of a space? Are we making it look bigger than normal? Can we carve out a nook, a niche or create a sit-out or bar area? Are we putting in points of constriction and expansion that will lead to a better spatial experience?”

These were the questions Shobhan and his team asked themselves while embarking on the assignment of creating a residence out of a 2BHK and 3BHK unit for a family of four in Mumbai. As is increasingly common, the apartment had several walls that couldn’t be moved. “In such a case, the design process has to be handled room by room. The challenge, then, is to not make the space appear fragmented. We have to ensure that when the doors are open, the story flows from one pocket to another.” To compound this problem, the architects were left with a large hall, an east wing and a west wing, when they brought down the common wall between the two units. “It almost became like a strait between two islands, and this is when things started getting really interesting. We knew that once we sorted this room, the rest would follow.”

Of the 3BHK unit, one bedroom became the entertainment room; the second became the kids’ room; and the third turned into the play area. The staff quarters, kitchen and an attached balcony were fused to form a larger cooking space with an attendant utility area. A passage near the staff entry was pressed into service as the staff quarters. On the other side, both the bedrooms of the 2BHK, a passage, and a bathroom went into making a master suite with the sleeping area, a lounge and a Hers walk-in wardrobe. The now obsolete kitchen became a smaller His walk-in wardrobe and a study that had two entry points, one from inside the house and from the outside as the client often conducts business meetings at home. “The clients had resigned themselves to having only one walk-in closet, but we managed to give them two! It feels good when you go beyond the brief,” smiles Shobhan.

But all this needed a bit of work. The two initial layouts that the architects sketched were discarded for a third and final one, after much discussion with the client. “Though we had received a one-point brief for this project (a beige-brown peaceful environment which could be infused with colour as and when the clients wished), carte blanche can be a tricky thing,” cautions Shobhan. “If you have someone who is awe of you and accepts the first scheme, that may not be the best thing for the project. No one can get the vision for a project in absolute clarity at the get go. There should be a certain churn that a plan goes through. Ego has no place in this,” emphasizes the architect. Here, thankfully, the clients were extremely well-travelled, so the advantage of ‘good exposure’ was on their side.

Engaging in a dialogue also establishes what the architects call “good habits” and “bad habits”. “It’s common to have a shoe rack at the entrance, a display case or a console in the living area, or a serve bar complete with stools… Why?,” questions Shobhan. “But we’re not resorting to finger pointing. It’s only a case of looking at established practices analytically. For us, it means challenging stereotypes. The idea is to filter out the rejections on the premise of bad habits, old baggage and bad exposure versus some sort of a bias. This way, we can’t do something just because we’re architects. You win some and you compromise on the others… up to a limit,” says Shobhan.

One of the stereotypes they successfully managed to bust in this home, is the orientation of the sofas. The expansive living room (which was split into formal, informal, dining and bar sections, with the formal area position in a straight line with the main entrance), enjoyed panoramic views to the city. A mechanical response to such a situation would have been to face them towards the windows. “We introspected on the why. And we decided that when people were seated, they had to be engaged with what was going on inside, rather than the outside. This configuration created a more welcoming air as now the seating faces the main door.” Hand in hand with this rationalization went the betterment of the layout: sofas facing the city meant an undesirable awkward aisle-like space between the backs of the sofa and the dining chairs. As a visual counterweight to the views outside and perhaps its reflection, is a large image of a New York bridge pasted on the wall parallel to the windows, behind the dining area. Overhead, the ceiling is lined with hardwood, with two slits that accommodate the fan, lights and speakers.

“Instead of creating some version of Gogh’s Starry Night by having lights all over the place, we constrained them to two places,” reveals the architect. “It all comes back to organization and making a meaningful shell. If you succeed in this, you can take away all the loose pieces, and still have an envelope that can stand on its own. And within that envelope it’s about having that one thing that makes a big impact on the space with other elements in a supporting role. It’s no usecreating clutter where everything vies for attention.” Rather like Muhammad Ali who believed in a compact pugilistic style, and extending an arm only for that deadly, KO punch!

This concert-over-clamour approach takes away some of the fog that cloaks the definition of ‘what is right for this space?’ when it comes to the question of accessories, art, rugs and other ‘layers’ that you load on to it. “All these elements are too subjective. It’s like me saying I want black, and you saying I want charcoal black. You can’t have defensible argument involving these. Therefore, you need to define the ideology that everyone can hold on to. It makes clients aware about what will work and what won’t. And it also gives us confidence that when we visit the site after an interval of time, we will still be able to identify with it,” says the architect who shies away from concept or themes for residential spaces. “All this works well in the retail or hospitality segments, but in case of residences, the design has to be a response to the site. The space should have a narrative.” Which is why he insisted on creating a vaulted, wood-lined ceiling between two beams in the master bedroom, whose curves are reflected in a large venetian-style mirror and sinuous-pattern flooring. “The client wasn’t terribly convinced about the ceiling, but with all the appreciation that it’s been getting, she’s quite happy. For us, it’s about creating moments.”

The decision to stay far removed from gimmicky ideas is best seen in the children’s room. Here, the light-hearted, effervescent ideas are not expressed as hackneyed wall murals or furniture based on fleeting childhood fancies, but as memories of happy moments: an afternoon spent with building blocks; a delicious half-nibbled cookie; a starry night; the delight in seeing a rainbow; the yearning for a tree-house… “The space has room to grow along with the child. The clients don’t need to come back to us for every little change since a change of colour, or a piece of loose furniture, or even furnishings will not break the scheme.”

With a formula that includes intense preoccupation with pragmatics and spatial articulation, recognition of the aesthetic layering that finally completes a space, readiness to discard ideas and start afresh, and a genuine interest in understanding the lifestyle of the client, it’s no wonder Atelier dnD’s portfolio is growing from strength to strength.

  CONCEPTTo create a spatial organization that is water-tight in terms of functionality and pragmatics, without relying too much on the ‘garnish’ of general veneering like artefacts and accessories.

  MATERIALSFlooring  SKP wooden flooring (bedrooms), marble (living room) and 3D tiles (kitchen) Walls Ply finish in PU, honed marble, white travertine, agglomerate stone Furniture and cladding Oak, teak and veneers

  FACT FILEArea 2,500 sq ft Location Mumbai Principal architects Shobhan Kothari and Anand Menon Design team Shobhan Kothari (partner), Nidhi Choudhary (project head) and Nima Nimbalkar (senior interior designer) Start date November 2013 Project duration Nine months

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By: Betterinteriors