THE MODERN INDIAN

The design of the project by Studio Osmosis responded to a central idea resonating with finding a sanctuary and an escape from high-fidelity urban life

The project went to the architects in an interesting way—for almost the first time a private residential client had a pre-brief of more than 10 pages long, weaving a story about themselves, their lives, personalities and their meaning, perception, dreams and expectations of home, life and family. The architects instantly fell in love with the clients’ brief, though challenging, and the space that this was going to evolve into as they could visualise it becoming something truly interesting and meaningful with every element for a reason, a story, a memory. What else could a designer ask for?

One way to interpret the concept is ‘shunya’, which is the circle of life. This has to do with the idea of family and passing on values and teachings through generations. The idea of introducing an almost invisible loop as a feature throughout the house is to express this idea of continuity or ‘flow’ of energy, which was also enhanced by the correct Vastu-based planning generating a strong Brahmasthan right in the virtual centre of the house from which all the positive energy flows. A constant energy loop originates from that virtual point and connects different planes into a single entity, allowing the entire space to come together as a whole.

As clearly gathered from the client’s brief and detailed discussions over the first few months, the design responded to a central idea resonating with finding a sanctuary and an escape from high-fidelity urban life. The client had said once during one of the initial meetings, “The concept must be real, and not retrofitted to common trends. We will be able to see through that sort of thing. We are looking at a home, not a hotel suite.”