The Kalkaji Residence
What was previously a dark and dingy DDA Apartment – an aggregation of tiny rooms, each unsparingly confined within blatant restricting walls; is now an open delightful home that awakens senses and nurtures the soul with its sun-kissed openness and muted design tone. This residence at Kalkaji, Delhi, is a transformed composition with ingeniously catered and intuitively fluid spaces that bind together all of 1300 Sqft in harmony.
Before moving in, the newly wed young couple - Kriti Tula (Co-Founder of a Sustainable Fashion brand called 'Doodlage') and Vaibhav Kapoor (Senior Accounts Manager at Razorpay) wanted to reconfigure their apartment into a space that has a flexible personality to nurture dynamism and tranquillity alike. A home that's chic yet smartly functional; replete with natural light, yet adaptive to varying ambiences. They invited Logic to envision a home that is as exuberant as it is no frills.
The design challenge was to achieve a holistic spatial experience that is real and pleasurable, despite a small site area, a tight budget and a structurally limiting context within a very old apartment building - the building itself being nestled amidst a cluster of many such identical lookalikes planned to be elementary shelters, far from the romantic pursuit of an original wishful abode. This called for a highly opportunistic design approach rooted in problem solving and a thoughtful curation of the base material palette. The bare shell was reimagined to create an open plan layout via precarious structural modifications, removal of internal walls and incorporation of large windows along the periphery. Much of the original basic framework of the home including its walls, floors, ceiling etc has been manipulated to enhance spatial volume, and then used as an expressive means in design to define the character of the home.
Upon entering, one is welcomed in an adaptive spatial configuration that breaks through the monotony of restricted zones, to have a composite identity rich in textures, light and geometry. The home derives its essence from an honest expression of the material palette, which is a concoction of raw natural materials like wood, concrete, black granite and metal. There’s a great deal of attention to scale and psychological perception, which when put together with attentive detailing, adds a certain depth to the ambience and creates an immersive visual impact.
The different areas within the home have a sequential relationship with one another and are seamlessly cohesive in spirit. Each element in the home- however big or small, has been custom designed in Studio to respect spatial constraints and serve purpose with flexibility. The partition wall for example, that divides The Living Room and The Study is transitional but also multifaceted– apart from serving the privacy requisite between the two spaces through fluted glass blocks, it provides shared access to some open utility and display blocks for both spaces, while also serving as a secondary natural light inlet for the living room, that is devoid of windows. Likewise, The Study is majorly characterised by a single monolithic furniture mass i.e. a day bed, that extends upwards to form a work-desk in the corner.
Replete with natural light pouring in from every face, the apartment speaks a carefree unconventional language with subtle boho accents to evoke the users’ individuality. The space contextually assumes and adapts to many different moods, manifesting a character that fosters wholesome solitude and bustling hospitality alike.
