Tranquil Retreat

Kavan Shah Design Studio transforms a multi-partitioned Mumbai apartment with compromised rooms into a luxurious contemporary home by opening up the plan —allowing the full width and length of the house to be experienced.  

Curated by: Deepa Nair
Photographs: Pulkit Sehgal; courtesy Kavan Shah Design Studio

The brief

Kavan Shah Design Studio was commissioned by a Mumbai-based client to design their 1,800-square-foot apartment. The home owners desired an inviting atmosphere and spaces to accommodate natural artefacts and artwork from their travels. The couple also wanted to preserve the qualities of living in a house with a garden, so the brief required a spacious, open plan with as much natural light incidence as possible. The vision therefore was to transform multi-partitioned space with compromised rooms into a contemporary home with a great feeling of space. This has been achieved by opening up the plan and providing views into other spaces, allowing the full width and length of the house to be experienced.

The design intent

“Design is always about a balance, it is about the elevated being pulled down with something that feels a little more artisanal with the touch of a hand,” explains Kavan Shah, principal architect, Kavan Shah Design Studio. “This project is a direct reflection of our practice wherein the end product is both expressive and finely detailed, and marries contemporary (like the minimal colour palette) and vintage influences (like the arched doors, wooden ladder, cane chairs and live edge dining table).”

The spatial configuration

This 4BHK unit was broken down into one large open space for multiple functions, one master bedroom with a walk-in closet and one office space with a collapsible door leading to a small guest room. Particular attention was paid to minimising the footprint of the powder bathroom and kitchen by placing them into the centre of the plan, sandwiched between the living room and bedroom. Kavan wanted to create an open-plan layout in the apartment’s social areas, so that movement between the kitchen, dining, living room, study and balcony flowed easily. In order to do this, the original enclosed kitchen was opened up and combined with the living room, creating a large open area for family gatherings.

The apartment includes a home office which is placed in the brightest corner of the apartment with tall windows across two walls. The office is marked by a long, L-shaped Calicut marble desk, which sits below a canopy of plants. The canopy above is fabricated in house and automated for ease of maintaining the plants.

The material palette

Finished in a palette of natural materials like wood and white stucco, the apartment features many bespoke, built-in storages. In the kitchen and dining space, matte white cabinets and countertops complement the off-white walls. Patterned wallpapers and furniture in pastel hues add colour and charm to the house. The furniture (like dining table and chairs, office chairs and benches) also sees the use cane and teakwood; while the beautifully crafted arched doors feature black veneer. The kitchen and office counter tops are crafted from Calicut marble. The green wall with cut riverstones act as the backdrop for the dining, and overlooks the open kitchen. The kitchen is fitted with white cabinetry, concealed appliances and a stove that is seamlessly integrated into the stone island. The guest bedroom has a back wall which conceals a Murphy’s bed behind a wallpapered wall. Interestingly, the bed is flanked by in-built storage units made from MDF which has been coated in mint green Duco paint.

The highlights

The biggest highlight of the apartment is the floor-to-ceiling library which forms a backdrop to the living area. “Having such a huge collection of books, the client wanted only one thing: to have the ultimate display and storage space. We started making a programme of requirements and calculating the exact amount of shelving we would need for this big library,” says Kavan.

The takeaway

“I would say a lot of our spaces are born from a contextual need. When designing interiors, we always look at the specific site and the existing architecture. In that sense, we are less concept-driven as much as material-driven. I think it is most important to create environments that are layered, but also quite straightforward and approachable. The aim was to give a strong impression of unity in the whole space,” explains Kavan.

Fact File

Project: The Open House
Location: Bandra, Mumbai
Area: 1,800 sq ft
Principal architect: Kavan Shah