Nurturing spaces of familial warmth
This house is designed as a home, filled with a sense of freedom, of movement and light, a sense of belonging and comfort, one that brings joy to its residents. The home designed for a family of five is located in a dense urban context. The 5bhk layout makes for a spacious, sunbathed habitat despite its modest 1500 sq ft plot area. The family’s vision was to have a spacious and intimate home where connections between people and nature could be nurtured.
Lush corners and green flourishes
The home looks across a large society garden and is planned well to bring in the outdoor views. An open triple-height volume located in the central core forms a courtyard dining space that flows intuitively into adjoining living and kitchen spaces. Carefully planned openings bring in views from terrace balconies and the triple-height courtyard to establish a visual connection between spaces. Fanned leaves of palms adorn nooks and crannies here, setting the fresh greens against a backdrop of terracotta reds.
Terracotta tales
The terracotta jaali gives the home its identity, paired well with generous balconies and planter pockets on its façade. This continues inside as well, across three floors and five bedrooms. Brick-clad walls grace the triple-height court and recur as feature walls throughout the spaces. The walls in common spaces are adorned with custom-made terracotta lamps and artworks to further denote the authenticity in the use of materials in the spaces.
Honouring hues
The white painted underside of the staircase almost merges it with the rest of the shell while accentuating the volume of the core. The bedrooms carry a simplistic theme in the same white shell and a warm-toned flooring dotted with traditional motifs.
A muted turquoise shade acts as an accent, found sparingly in upholstery and furnishings around the public zone. Its restrained use beautifully complements and contrasts the otherwise fully warm palette of the spaces.
Playing with shadows and sciography
Large windows and skylight in the central courtyard fill the space with ample daylight, making it a pleasant experience across all floors. The angled brick-clad walls create dramatic shadow play on either side which is especially pleasing when viewed from the mid-landing of the very nonchalant floating metal staircase. The façade jaali – meant to evoke delicate decorative screens from Islamic architecture – outlines the primary bedroom and forms beautiful intricate shadow patterns while also blocking glare and allowing a captivating view of the garden across the lane.
In a project that straddles a menu of nuances, Mashrabiya stands out with its sensitive yet stunning design strategies, considering everything from materiality and architectural detail to comfort and familial warmth.
Project Team: Nikhil Marmat, Mustafa Topiwala, Murtaza Topiwala
Photography credits: Avesh Gaur
About the architects:
Form Design Studio is a young Indore-based practice, aiming to bring value to people’s lives through the spaces they design. The firm seeks to continually push the envelope in the pursuit of creating relevant and functional spaces.
