VS House
VS House is a family home in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Originally a 4 bedroom house built around 7 years ago, it has been retrofitted into a 3 bedroom one. The existing house was stripped of all its finishes and redesigned from scratch, while a lot of the spaces and services were changed as well.
Being a corner plot, there was more space available here as compared to the other houses in the society. These spaces were used to design an independent gym and a jacuzzi spa. The entry was also completely redone with higher boundary walls and a larger covered parking space. Inside the house, one of the bedrooms was converted to a private lounge and a service terrace was taken inside the house to convert it to a work-study.
The house is designed with a very minimalist tone. Instead of adding more elements, focus has been given on the nature of the materials used to finish the insides, which create the entire ambience. An emphasis was given on an individual’s visual and tactile journey through the house, where a majority of the focus was on the flooring.
A combination of leather finished and mirror polished grey Kota stone has been used with intricate patterns in the floor, to define spaces that are otherwise monochromatic. This same stone forms linear strips in the movement spaces, herringbone patterns in the formal living space, large chunks in the informal space, seamless polished surface in the kitchen and patterns inlayed with wood in the bedrooms. Four spots have a separate flooring material to create a visual highlight. The dining has a diagonal leather finished black Kadappa and the private lounge has large pieces of the same stone. The study and the courtyards have a higher contrast with a warmer tone. The courtyard has a herringbone pattern of fire bricks while the study has a complete wooden floor.
To complement these all the bathrooms have similar intricate patterns done with other coloured Indian stones. The walls and ceilings take a grey colour to keep the tones monochromatic hence making the wooden furniture elements pop out. A majority of the wood used in the project is reclaimed and the walls are all finished with a lime wash. This entire palette has been chosen keeping locally available materials in mind.
The study was originally a large passage and a terrace next to it, so half its roof is done from scratch in metal. This allowed for the curved ceiling opening up towards the morning light. The study is imagined as a wooden box, making it one of the warmest spaces in the house. The aim was to create a feeling of entering into a den, which is isolated from everything else.
All the exterior spaces have a similar tone to them as the interiors. There are 4 sit out spaces other than the gym. The wooden jacuzzi deck, a grey Kota stone verandah outside the formal seating and a similarly finished terrace outside the master bed, and finally a larger sit-out near the courtyard finished with brown Kota stone. The gym and the entry are finished with the black Kadappa The large entry walls are not just an aesthetic choice but also hide a lot of the services in them.
