Studio Yamini toe the minimal line in this modern Vadodara apartment uses retrained materiality and visual expression to render a clean, fuss-free living environment.
Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Photographix India; courtesy Studio Yamini
The site
Located on the 7th floor, JP Apartment overlooks a lush piece of land from the living room and the dining area. Given large windows on that side, the home is quite blessed with natural light.
The brief
The clients, a young couple, didn’t have the requirements of formal entertaining and heavy storage that are typical of larger families. They wanted a minimal, open environment that was essentially modern in its expression.
The civil intervention
To intensify the sense of spaciousness and openness, “we enlarged the doorway between living room and dining area, and installed an MS and copper jaali for that little screening effect,” reveal Mehul and Mitul Shah, principals, Studio Yamini. Additionally, the third bedroom of this erstwhile 3BHK apartment was converted into a walk-in closet for the master bedroom, making it into a 2BHK unit.
The visual expression and material palette
The overall direction plays with monochromes and simple forms, with luxury sensed rather than being overtly in the face. Grey matte satin-finish tiles tie the visual story together. The colour is repeated on the walls, with the monolithic effect interspersed by cement tiles (installed with the reverse side exposed, for its texture), painted MDF, copper and teakwood. Overall, these form the main constituents of the material palette.
The spatial configuration
The living area flows into a balcony overlooking a verdant patch next-door. A human figure by Ashish Chakraborty that separates the entrance foyer from the living room (rather than a screen) speaks of an experimental attempt at space modulation. The blue patina of the art piece adds a pop of colour to the otherwise neutral story. The living room segues effortlessly into a dining area, the only separation between them is a light-on-the-eye jaali-like screen the architects mentioned earlier. With its round, four-seater table, rather than anything more formal-looking, the dining area seems more like a cafe, an illusion strengthened by the presence of lush plants in the nearby balcony.
Like the rest of the house, a sense of luxury pervades this area like a soft presence — seen in the subtle texture of the copper-patti embellished cement-sheet wall and the copper legs of the round table. The kitchen next-door is pragmatic and stylish, with high-gloss laminate shutters that make maintenance easy and handmade dado tiles that add a gentle rusticity to the space. Toeing the aesthetic direction central to the narrative of this apartment, the two bedrooms eschew fuss and flourishes and dwell on more important things such as wellness, positivity, sunlight and oxygen-generating greenery. While teakwood expanses behind the bed in one room seem to envelope it in warmth, the second bedroom is crisp and light with subtle texture of reversed cement tiles.
Fact File
Project: JP Apartment
Location: Vadodara
Area: 1,209 sq ft
Principal architects: Mehul Shah and Mitul Shah
Add a Comment