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reD House by the sea (Mumbai)
As the client was moving into a 40,000 sq ft home, he wanted a fully self sustained home. The family of 5 expected the house to have opulent spaces and lavishness in every corner. Hence, the spaces are fully optimized to their potential. The 4 floor ultra luxurious house consists of the basement which is housed with the spa, salon, night club, billiards and cards room. This house is the decisive amalgamation of class, luxury and sophistication. The bungalow faces the sea and the rear section of it faces the road. Since the rear area has no view, a Glass Reinforced Concrete screen was designed and developed so as to screen off the views into the house and give filtered views from inside looking out.
FIRM NAME Research & Enquiry Into Design PRINCIPAL ARCHITECTS Rajiv Parekh Ekta Parekh Apoorva Shroff Maithili Raut EDUCATION/AFFILIATION Rajiv - M.Arch, Pratt Institute, New York Registered with the Council of Architecture and IIID Apoorva - M.Arch, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles Registered with the Council of Architecture BUILT UP AREA 40000 sq.ft. TEAM SIZE 35 people CONTACT Unit# 401-406, Om Annex, Off Tulsi Pipe Road, Mumbai - 400028, INDIA T +91 022 4322 6000 / 6099 E apoorvas@redarchitects.in redarchitects@redarchitects.in W www.redarchitects.in
Top Left: Exterior facing the sea Bottom Centre: Entrance porch Bottom Right: Landscaped garden
PRODUCTS/VENDORS Paint: Asian Paints CP Fittings / Sanitaryware: Villeroy & Boch, Gessi, Devon & Devon, Falper, FCML, Bathshop, Belliza Furniture: Ipe Cavalli, Rolf Benz, Giorgetti Furnishing: Tranceforme, Elementto Flooring: Sicis, Jalaram, Greenlam, Classic Marbles Kitchen: Siemens, Nirali, Akruti Electrical: Terzani, Axo, Legrand Air Conditioning: Daikin Arts and Artifacts: Imported from Bali, China, Italy CONSULTANTS/CONTRACTORS Structural: U. D. Chande Consulting Engineers Civil: Supreme Associates Electrical: Decor, Natech Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Landscape: Retiwalla HVAC: Arctic Cool PMC: Project Lead: Shweta Hegde Civil/Carpentry/Plumbing: Décor
striking The ground floor comprised of a large foyer entrance, a small home office, puja room, formal living room, formal dining room, family engagement room, mother's bedroom, a guest room, the master bedroom and a large kitchen. The amorphous form on the ground floor, was developed to house the formal dining area, this broke the conventional layout of the living room. This form was developed with solid wood blocks of different types of woods, interlocked with dowels, which gave it a dynamic shape. Initially the pool was in the garden, facing the sea rendering it unusable as there was no privacy from the neighboring buildings. We thus decided to take it to the terrace level and give it an infinity edge to establish a visual connection with the sea and ensuring privacy to the people using it. The slab was waterproofed to prevent seepages and strengthening the structure in this area was an engineering feat.
Top Left: Formal dining room Top Centre: The 26’ high windows overlooking the garden Top Right: Formal living room Bottom Left: GRC exterior cladding
“Since the height of the formal living room was 26’0”, unique German windows from Panorama were imported and installed along with automation, so that they could be opened onto the garden spaces for the spectacular sea view on a day with good weather. ”
Top Left: Courtyard bringing natural light into the Recreational Floor Top Centre: Pooja room Top Right: Interlocking self supporting brick detail Bottom Left: Family lounge Bottom Right: Home office
a gamut of experiences Near the pool, a cantilevered stone bench was designed perfectly fitting the ergonomics of the client, so that when he sat on this bench just his feet would dip into the pool which was overlooking the sea at the terrace level. The Pool backdrop wall was made of a treated travertine stone with embossed patterns on it thereby highlighting the wall subtly. At the upper terrace level, the Cabana was positioned over a water body that had water flowing under it, which would disappear off the edge of this terrace and came down as a waterfall behind the pool, implying that the same water was connected into the pool and vanished into the pool's infinity edge and the sea. The first floor comprised of 2 large in-suite bedrooms for the 2 sons, another guest room and an open format library cum family room. The second floor had a more intimate bar from where the pool was accessible to a large space for gaming, rock climbing, etc.
The master bedroom wardrobe had a double height of 14'0�, so instead of building another floor over this space and finding another use for it; the double height was left intact and a wardrobe was built along the walls which extended over the entire height. A hydraulic platform goes to the upper level of the wardrobe space and glass walkway allowed for traversing and accessing this entire space. The terrace was landscaped and treated as yet another space where the family could relax with a Cabana for yoga or meditation. It also had an indoor section which housed a full fledged gym. In this way a large gamut of functions were accommodated very thoughtfully into this beautiful house by the sea.
Bottom Left: Terrace Bottom Centre: Master walk-in wardrobe - bathroom Top Right: Swimming pool on lower terrace Bottom Right: Master bedroom
RECREATION FLOOR PLAN
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
TERRACE PLAN
RECREATION FLOOR PLAN
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
TERRACE FLOOR PLAN
1. NIGHT CLUB
12. ENTRANCE VESTIBULE
25. LOUNGE
32. GYM
2. DATA SERVER ROOM
13. PUJA ROOM
26. TERRACE LAWN
33. GYM BATHROOM
3. HOME THEATRE
14. HOME OFFICE
27. GUEST ROOM
34. POWDER TOILETS
4. GAMES ROOM
15. FORMAL LIVING ROOM
28. GUEST ROOM
35. OPEN TERRACE
5. SALON
16. FORMAL DINING ROOM
29. SON’S ROOM 1
36. POOL
6. SPA
17. INFORMAL DINING ROOM
30. INFORMAL LOUNGE
7. POWDER TOILET
18. MASTER SUITE
31. SON’S ROOM 2
8. UTILITY AND STORAGE
19. PASSAGE
9. AMC ROOM
20. GRANDMOM’S ROOM
10. STAFF AREA
21. GUEST ROOM
11. CAR PARK
22. KITCHEN 23. POWDER ROOM 24. LAWN
the challenges The biggest challenge while designing this home was that we had to modify an existing, classical design bungalow into a modern contemporary structure. Since the building was inherited by us and the client did not want to demolish it and start from scratch, we had to design the face lift keeping the existing structural members intact. We stripped down the building of its classical moldings, cornices, Mangalore tile roofs etc and then added contemporary elements to it by taking reinforcement from existing structural members. The entire house was designed, detailed and executed in 24 months which was a record in itself for architectural and interior design work to be finished to this level of customization. We had to therefore build waterproof enclosures at various places through this process to ensure work could be carried out throughout the monsoons as well. The basement of the original house was very dark and dingy so we suggested we cut out the slab to bring natural light into the space. This meant convincing the client the give up usable floor space just for a lighting feature. Fortunately he saw eye to eye with our vision and helped make it a reality. A careful study of the reinforcement bars and the load distribution of the slab were studied and with surgical precision, the opening was made.
the inspiration Having an independent bungalow in Mumbai right on the beach with uninterrupted views of the sea was a huge inspiration for this project. Most of the sea facing windows were kept larger and shielded from the rooms adjoining to them, so that each space could open up to the sea front without being disturbed by any neighboring space. The client’s brief to keep every space with a varied sense of aesthetic was also another point of inspiration. It helped us push the envelope and give a different spatial and visual experiences to each area of the house.
TEXT CREDITS Ekta Parekh
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS Jignesh Jhaveri
K.S. Dastoor
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