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Jayesh Shah Biyani Residence (Lonavala)
This holiday home was designed for a South Mumbai stock broker family - Mr. & Mrs. Biyani. The motive behind it was to have a break from their fast pace life in Mumbai. While designing a weekend home for the Biyani Family in Lonavala, it was ensured that the client would experience the luxury of space. The attraction in this holiday home is the extravagant space encountered as one sets foot in it. The bungalow occupies about 10,000 sq ft on a 2.5 acre plot. It’s location on a hilltop offers a panoramic view of the town from one end and the valley from another. Working on such an expanse provided enough room to design wider in-house spaces.
FIRM NAME Jayesh Shah Architects PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT Jayesh Shah EDUCATION/AFFILIATION Master of Architecture (Urban Design) with Honours from University of Oklahoma, College of Architecture, USA
PRODUCTS/VENDORS Paints: Asian Paints Furniture: Latiyal Handicrafts Furnishing: Muslin, Fabindia, Bharat Furnishing Flooring: Sourze, Nitco CP Fittings / Sanitaryware: Sourze, China Lighting: Glitzy Lights On, Chor Bazaar, Cerco Lights Arts & Artifacts: Silver Oak & Home Center CONSULTANTS/CONTRACTORS
BUILT UP AREA 10000 sq.ft. TEAM SIZE 10 people CONTACT 623 / 624 Arun Chambers, Tardeo, Mumbai - 400 034, INDIA T +91 022 66624035/36 E mail@jayeshshaharchitects.com W jayeshshaharchitects.com
Civil: M/s. Shah Trading Co., Lonavala Landscape: Professional Landscape Design
seamless Starting from the facade, we ensured the house did not dominate the surrounding landscape. This enables the residents to take in the prominent view. The ground floor accommodates the living room, dining area, lounge, two guest bedrooms and a gym that can be converted into a bedroom. The first floor has the master bedroom and two more bedrooms.
“We made sure the owners enjoyed the joy of space. We achieved this with the height, the space, the view, and the materials used while building.�
The defining characteristic of this residence is the expansive living room. Here, the roof slopes down from the first floor to the ground floor, from a height of 20 ft to 10 ft. A double height courtyard flows seamlessly from the entrance into the living room. This space has been devised to make most of the views outside.
Top Left: A huge Diwan in the double height living room allows the family to enjoy the beauty of the valley Top Right: Earthy materials like rustic tile flooring and a dark painted underside pitched ceiling of the master lounge gives a tropical feel to the interiors Bottom Left: Master bedroom showcases the ornate four poster bed
Top Left: The skylight over the double height courtyard in the living room allows natural light to flood the interiors Top Right: The transition from the family room to the master lounge Bottom Left: The combination of the stone cladding, textured tiles, plants and pebbles in the master bathroom freshens up the space Bottom Right: Use of rattan furniture in a rustic setting is in continuation with the concept of merging outdoor and indoor spaces
unabated magnificence
To make the nature flow indoors, one is first greeted with a courtyard, followed by a magnificent view of the valley, from the massive picture window of the living room. It is believed that an empty space gives a sense of luxury. Thus, this probed to create large empty spaces with minimum furniture and huge windows in all the bedrooms. Two bedrooms on the first floor have a balcony. The bedrooms situated on the first floor enjoy the effect of the sloping roof within the rooms, giving them elevated headroom of about 14 ft.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
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5 10 11
3
6
7
2
9
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1
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
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GROUND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
1. PORCH
1. FAMILY ROOM
2. ENTRANCE HALL
2. TERRACE
3. COURTYARD
3. BEDROOM
4. LIVING
4. TOILET
5. DINING
5. BEDROOM
6. UTILITY
6. TOILET
7. KITCHEN
7. BALCONY
8. BEDROOM
8. MASTER BEDROOM
9. TOILET
9. MASTER TOILET
10. GAMES ROOM
10. MASTER LOUNGE
11. TOILET
11. BALCONY
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the challenges The challenge was to build the house overcoming all the environmental and geographical obstacles like landslides and landfills. But this holiday home leaves an enlightened footprint. Much of the original contours of the land had to be retained because of landslides and landfills. Climate strongly dictated the design of this house. To protect the southwest areas of the house from the monsoon lash, the roof was projected outwards by about 4-5 ft, shielding the windows on the first floor. On the ground floor, a stone-wall has been created beyond the existing building wall to protect the house from leakage, and avoid dampening which could weaken the structure.
the influences “The inspiration for this house poured from the time we visited the plot. The house should act like a camera to capture the scenic beauty and we were successful at doing that.� - Jayesh Shah
TEXT CREDITS Jayesh Shah
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS Prashant Bhatt
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