Architect Niels Schoenfelder and his entrepreneur wife Malavika Shivakumar designed their Chennai home to reflect their Indo-European roots.
Despite a scattering of swanky new residential high-rises and theme parks with names like ‘Oceanique’, ‘Ecstasea’ and ‘Dizee World’, the road south from Chennai to Kovalam still retains remnants of a rural setting. It is down one such seaward lane that German architect Niels Schoenfelder has built a home for his family.
The frontage presents a bare expanse of white wall with a deliberately uninviting steel door that opens outwards. To step inside, however, is to suspend belief. You enter a large dining space, with its floor of waxed black Kadappa stone and whimsical art deco dining table. Here onwards, surprise after unexpected surprise lies in store. The low-slung building gives on to a walled courtyard with raked yellow sand in Zen garden-like symmetry.
Beyond lies the two-storeyed main house, its central double-height living area soaring to a pitched roof, and walls of birch ply, stained deep blue with natural indigo. The eye travels upwards from an innovative steel bookcase of Schoenfelder’s design to an ingenious “bridge of books”. This links the master bedroom to a large walk-in area that he teasingly calls “my lady’s boudoir”.
A MEETING OF MINDS
Tall, lanky, 41-year-old Schoenfelder, an alumnus of the 19th-century Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, comes from a rigorous intellectual tradition. Though he describes his Hannover upbringing as “quite mundane”, it’s no coincidence that as the only child of educationists in French literature and art history, his outlook was shaped by a liberal world view: “Our holidays were spent in far-flung places like China or Chile.” After a stint in Paris working for a small architectural practice, he fetched up in Puducherry in 2002 to work on a couple of boutique hotels—and never left.
Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av AD Architectural Digest India.
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Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av AD Architectural Digest India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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BANYAN TREE VEYA, IN MEXICO'S VALLE DE GUADALUPE, IS A NEW WELLNESS RESORT THAT LOOKS TO THE LAND.
A two-hour drive south from San Diego, the Mexican wine region of Valle de Guadalupe-dotted with fertile vineyards and family farms-has remained mostly under the radar, even to food-obsessed Americans.
DESIGNED IN 1988 BY RENOWNED LANDSCAPIST MADE WIJAYA, THE GROUNDS AT AMANDARI IN UBUD, BALI, FOREGO MANICURED LAWNS FOR AN ABUNDANT NATIVE PARADISE.
Coconut palms and banyan trees in sizzling jungle greens, cascades of bougainvillea and the scent of frangipani in the air—a tropical explosion of foliage that would have led Monet to abandon Giverny.
BANGALORE CLUB'S MAIN LAWNS, WITH A MAGNIFICENT RAIN TREE, GET A NEW UMBRELLA BAR AND COLONNADE BY AD100 ARCHITECTS SANDEEP KHOSLA AND AMARESH ANAND.
Time appears to come to a standstill when one enters the Bangalore Club.
FROM HER STUDIO IN LLOYD WRIGHT'S 1927 HOME, DESIGNER VICKI VON HOLZHAUSEN IS REFINING THE SCIENCE OF HIGHPERFORMANCE, PLANT-BASED MATERIALS.
It seems not only fitting but poetic that Los Angeles-based designer and eco-preneur Vicki von Holzhausen chose architect Lloyd Wright's own 1927 studio and residence as the symbolic headquarters of her namesake company, von Holzhausen, a pioneer in the development of high-performance plantbased materials.
IN THE LADAKHI HAMLET OF TURTUK, A KITCHEN GARDEN SUPPLIES FRESH PRODUCE TO THE BALTI KITCHEN OF BOUTIQUE HOTEL VIRSA.
To get to the most exquisite yet humble meal of your life, you'll have to take a six-hour drive from Leh and reach Turtuk, one of the only four Balti villages that fall on the Indian side of the border.
MAKAIBARI'S NEW EXPERIENTIAL STORE IN KOLKATA IS DESIGNED TO EVOKE A TEA PLANTER'S BUNGALOW.
Smell the tea, feel the carpets, enjoy the space”—such is the invitation from Rudra Chatterjee, chairman of Obeetee and managing director of Luxmi Tea Group, at the launch of fine tea brand Makaibari’s experiential store in October, at the Taj Bengal in Kolkata.
ARTS OF HINDOSTAN PIECES TOGETHER A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUGHAL FLOWER-FROM ITS ORIGIN IN ATELIERS IN MEDIEVAL INDIA TO ITS UBIQUITY ACROSS TIME.
The Mughal emperor Jahangir was famously enraptured by the beauty of flowering plants that he saw on his visit to Kashmir in the spring of 1620.
A FURNITURE-ARTWORK PAIRING COMES TOGETHER AS PAOLA LENTI'S CAMPANA BROTHERSDESIGNED BENCH IS REIMAGINED TO MATCH ARTIST HUGO YOSHIKAWA'S PLAYFUL STYLE.
Vegetation has been the central subject matter of many Hugo Yoshikawa artworks for the past few years.
FROM SCULPTURES TO JEWELLERY, ARTIST LYNDA BENGLIS'S DESIGNS FOR LOEWE FEATURED IN THE BANCA MARCH GARDEN IN MADRID EARLIER THIS YEAR.
This spring, when the gates of the private Banca March Garden in Madrid's Salamanca neighbourhood opened to the public, visitors could experience four monumental fountains, emerging from the ground and soaring towards the sky.
FERNS AND FLOWERS BLOOM ON TOD'S BAGS AND SHOES, A SPECIAL LINE DESIGNED BY RAHUL MISHRA― NATURE BEING HIS CONSTANT MUSE.
India was once called “sone ki chidiya” (golden bird) for its abundance of resources, wealth and prosperity.