“The future of luxury is going to be artisan-based, where it is about things have been designed hands-on.” — Vikram Rajashekar

Luxury houses take on many forms depending on whom they are being designed for. This house, standing in a densely populated locality of Bengaluru, had the tall order of accommodating the personalities of three diverse families while also doing justice to the sentimental attachment they had with their previous home, standing for about a century.

FACT FILE

FORM FOLLOWED BY MATERIAL

With an aim to exude a sense of timeless luxury, this house in Bengaluru, designed for the Marlecha family, appears as if it has been cut out of marble — in a manner similar to the structures of the ancient times. From pale shades to iconic bold streaked slabs, the house harnesses the sculptability of marble to create an interesting experience.

STRAIGHTFORWARD PLANNING

Surrounding-wise, the site did not have much in the way of greenery or views for the house to orient by, leaving it to the planning to create its own focal point. With a plot of about 50 x 60 ft, the house gives up most of the lower floor to the entrance and the parking. The ground floor additionally hosts the office which is fit in the rear. The entrance to this zone is via an old door salvaged from the ancestral home that has been reused.

The first and second floor is planned as single home unit with three bedrooms. The central staircase brings you into the public zones of the house — the living and the dining area — with free and open facades to bring in most of the natural light. There is a puja corner that makes a grand statement with its sculptural appearance. These spaces are zoned in the northern quadrant of the plan, while the services, the kitchen and the three bedrooms take up space in the remaining directions.

The duplex on the third and the fourth floors follow a similar zoning pattern — the living area greeting upon entry from the central staircase and the private areas of the kitchen and the bedrooms oriented beyond towards the rear.

The living and dining area of this unit has double height, making it possible to flush it with ample daylight by opening up the north wall and extending the floor plate out onto a deck.

DASH OF GREENS

The living space on the first and second-floor duplex takes up the northeast direction. The open facade opens out into a huge terrace that acts both as a privacy-providing element for the neighbours and as a spill-out area for the living zone.

On the terrace, is the family’s common garden. The grey of the exterior is drawn into this zone with the monotony broken with the warmth of the wooden furniture acting as accents. The terrace has a laundry area and three individual multi-purpose rooms for the three families living here. Scattered around are plants and lawns to compensate for the lack of vegetation in the locality.

AT THE HEART

On the third floor, there is a puja courtyard that arrests attention as soon as one enters this space. It is lined with indoor plants that bring in the much-needed greenery to liven up the house. The play of material here seems as if the marble from the floor morphs into the seating, the puja room and then ultimately takes the form of the staircase itself. On the inside is a semi-circular alcove with fluted marble walls that make the material appear soft. This space is topped with a skylight that flitters sunshine inside, giving this spot an ephemeral feel.

CLEAN SIMPLICITY

From the inlaid sockets in the furniture to the clean lines throughout the house, the design leans towards being minimally abundant in details. In the topmost bedrooms, this is demonstrated at its best where the lined storage units camouflage the door to the toilet seamlessly, hiding it in plain sight.

To keep the front facade from turning into an overwhelming mass, the design cut it down into light blocks with green pockets that further make it appear lighter. The facade mainly flaunts three materials — corten steel that gives the facade its striking rustic look, the pastel pink paint and the grey textured finish of the staircase block that binds it all together.

The colour palette is homogeneous for every space in the house, with all areas holding up their own individuality while sitting together as a single family. Much like how any dynamic joint family does.

To watch the complete home tour, peruse the drawings in detail and browse additional photographs, visit Buildofy. While there, don’t miss out on the other impressive luxury homes in Karnataka and across India.