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.
この記事は AD Architectural Digest India の November 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は AD Architectural Digest India の November 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
IN A TRADITIONAL, OPEN-TO-SKY COURTYARD HOME IN ANEGUNDI, NEAR HAMPI, HERITAGE CONSERVATIONIST, PAINTER AND FOUNDER OF THE KISHKINDA TRUST, SHAMA PAWAR LIVES AND REVITALIZES CRAFT TRADITIONS BORN FROM THE LAND'S RICH PAST.
MATKAS OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FORM, RESIST-DYED SACRED CLOTHS HUNG AS TAPESTRIES, MUD PLASTER OR "LIPAI" WALLS, AND A JOURNEY IN COLOURS AND PODDAR AND EESHAAN PIGMENTS ANUPAM KASHYAP 'S DELHI HOME IS A PURSUIT OF A LAYERED, TACTILE BEAUTY.
Anupam Poddar and Eeshaan Kashyap's generous first-floor apartment in the shadow of Humayun's Tomb harks to a leisurely way of living.
CLASSIC BEIRUT HERITAGE AND GLAMOUR
A COLLECTOR AND ANTIQUE S DEALER, THE LATE HOME, BEIT CHABEB I N BEIRUT, IS A COMING JOE TOHMES GREATEST PASSION PROJECT, HIS TOGETHER OF THE RUSTIC AND THE REFINED.
LAL KOTHI
TEXTILE LOVERS PETER AND CECILE D'ASCOLI TRANSFORM THEIR DELHI FARMHOUSE INTO A KALEIDOSCOPIC FEAT OF COLOUR AND PATTERN.
ATELIERS DE FRANCE
More than 15 million spectators are expected to descend on Paris for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, and they won't be there to see only the sporting events.
ON THE EARTH
On a bright, breezy afternoon at La Pelota in the heart of Milan-where Hermès holds its annual presentation every springBenoit Pierre Emery, the creative director of tableware, laid out a tray with pieces from the dinner service Tressages Équestres.
JAIN HANDICRAFTS OPENS A STORE IN AHMEDABAD, DESIGNED BY SAMIR WADEKAR, WITH A CURATED COLLECTION DRAWN FROM THEIR SEA OF ANTIQUES.
When Jain Handicrafts, a multigenerational family business dealing in period furniture and objets d'art, showcased their collection at the annual AD Design Show last year, they were amazed by the positive response they received from visitors.
MASTER WEAVER SHAMJI VANKAR TAKES A SLICE OF HIS CULTURE TO XTANT, A HERITAGE TEXTILE FESTIVAL HELD IN MALLORCA THIS SUMMER.
Art is made by a single individual for the enjoyment of another.
RITU KUMAR HOME'S LATEST TABLEWARE COLLECTION DRAWS FROM IKAT AND CHINTZ.
Ritu Kumar's home collections have always reflected her love for handlooms and Indian art forms. Be it intricate Mughal art or elaborate Kashmiri booti, the table linen, serveware and even glassware borrow from traditional motifs.
SIX DECADES SINCE ITS ORIGIN, BAREFOOT IN COLOMBO REMAINS DEDICATED TO LATE FOUNDER BARBARA SANSONI'S LOVE OF HANDLOOM.
Amid a kaleidoscope of colours in the upholstery section of Barefoot's store in Colombo, the rolls of material stand out for their vibrant variations of green.