Bold & Beautiful

Designed by unTAG Architecture & Interiors and dressed in resplendent colours and luxe materials, this home extension in Ahmedabad is both bold and beautiful.

Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Photographix India; courtesy unTAG Architecture & Interiors

The chandelier and the striking artwork render a bold, intense look.

The brief

This project revolved around creating an entertainment cum workspace extension to an existing apartment. The clients wanted a party pad to host friends and family, with vibes of something in between modern and vintage. It would function almost like an outhouse to their 16th-floor primary home.

The design intent

Taking clues from nature, this space have been consciously crafted with hues of a tropical rainforest. “A high-rise in a way disconnects one with the ground, with the greenery,” says Gauri Satam, co-founder, unTAG Architecture & Interiors. “The project was an attempt to re-establish a biophilic connect through the hues of a tropical rainforest. It was to balance between boldness and subtlety, which nature in itself reverberates.” Thus, the overall home aesthetics aims at crafting a biophilic indoor space and rejuvenating the inhabitants via a metaphorical visual connect with nature.

Dressed in emerald green, wood and hints of the blue, the chromatic vocabulary of the entertainment lounge is informed by a tropical rainforest. The attempt here is to connect to nature through its metaphorical interpretations. The lounge is apportioned into seating areas.

The civil intervention

The site was received as a shell, “that being its strength, we could alter the layout to suit our requirements,” reminisces the young architect. “The apartment, being an extension to the main home, did not need a kitchen. So we amalgamated it into the living lounge, accommodating a hidden bar and a powder room. The door entry to the guest bedroom were altered to add an extra low seating near the bar.”

The passage that leads to the guest rooms. The grey exposed concrete look and the striking flooring pattern make this circulation space as visually energetic as the rest of the home-extension.

The spatial flow

The spacious 1800-sq-ft apartment encompasses an entertainment-cum work space with a lavish home lounge, a home office and two guest bedrooms.

The voluminous entertainment lounge personifies a tropical rainforest, with hues of emerald greens and teak wood. It is modulated into two sets of seatings: one is crafted as an audio-visual space with acoustic considerations, while the other one features low casual seating next to a bar. The latter is concealed within a wooden expanse, and reveals itself only when required, its mirrored panels amplifying the intense beauty of the room.

One of the guest rooms, dressed in cool blue. The crisp lines and a definite sense of style tie it to the ‘public’ face — the entertainment lounge — of this home.

The home-extension also meets the emerging inevitable need of a home office, “which the client has been thoroughly using in these testing ‘work from home’ times,” reveals Gauri. The vintage ambience, rendered in salvaged teak wood panels complemented by hints of beige through lime-plastered walls and crisp furniture selections, recreates the ambience of an office space of the 1970s.

While the two guest bedrooms, with hues of mint green and celestial blue respectively, create their own minimalistic havens, their aesthetics ties up with the overall home essence.

Fact File

Project: 1604, A Tropical Paradise
Location: Ambli, Ahmedabad
Area: 1,800 sq ft
Principal architects: Gauri Satam and Tejesh Patil
Contractor: Jay Shree Ambe Interiors, Manoj Prajapati Finishes
Project manager: Krunal Panchal