THE MINIMALIST HOUSE

• Location:  Ahmedabad, India
• Year:  2022
• Work Type:  Professional
• Institute / Firm:   The Design Umbrella
• Status:  Built
• Supervisor:  Ar. Mudra Shah

The project brief was to merge two adjacent apartments into a singular apartment. Functional requirements included three bedrooms, a very spacious kitchen, a formal living room, a family room with a jhula (swing), an impressive arrival space and a study room. The client being a doctor stressed upon the cleanliness aspect of the home resulting into a want for a low maintenance minimal design with usage of false ceiling and wall paneling as less as possible. One of the main challenges faced in redesigning the spatial layout was the fact that there was a duct right in the middle of the two apartments, and the structural system consisted of ‘L’ shaped columns that made it difficult to integrate/expand the spaces. In order to ensure that we use minimum partitions between the spaces, we decided to have an open plan layout for all their semi private spaces. Also in order to avoid the clutter, we allotted a singular space as a utility space which accomodate washing, drying as well as storage space. In order to fulfill their requirement of a low maintenance design, we decided to stick to the idea of “form follows function” and avoid every element which is purely for aesthetic reasons. The result was a spacious, minimally done up apartment with the material combinations of wood, mild steel and pastel shades.