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Architects: A+T Associates
- Area: 6700 ft²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Tejas Shah
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Asian Paints, Control 4, Jaquar, Luna Wood, Nolte, Trimble Navigation
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Lead Architects: Archis Patel, Tanvi Rajpurohit
Text description provided by the architects. This project is called 02, The Hidden House, and spans across the plot area of 12,000 sq.ft, located in the heart of north Vadodara. The house is a geometric composition of clean lines and stark surfaces. There is a very strong reason for calling it a hidden house due to the relation between context and concept. The house is facing south with 18 meter wide road in front.
Since the house was facing the 18 meter wide road, you have to be very careful with the kind of privacy issues it will face, the sound and the dust that comes over, where there will be lots of vehicle moving around. To resolve this issue we came up with this idea of introducing a huge 31.5 ft tall exposed concrete wall which hides behind almost all public and private spaces of the house. Towards the end, it converts into individual free standing angular walls. This exposed concrete wall has a very interesting graphic pattern engraved on it, so that the solidity of the wall can be disintegrated and can appear as interesting visual art wall. The wall performs as a main feature of the elevation. There is only one box peeping out from it while the rest of the house is hidden behind.
Talking about interiors the adopted language is modern contemporary and minimalistic. The look needed to be upbeat and timeless, yet refreshingly modern. We were very clear about the material palette from day one. We used warm and earthen tones in form of teak wood, brass, browns in furnishings and greys on walls. All the common connected spaces have uniform theme everywhere. But each individual room has a character of its own as per the personality of whoever is using it. The lower level has all public spaces like the living room, kitchen, dining, puja and other related services. Parents’ bedroom has been kept at the lower level too, keeping their age in mind. The home theatre or entertainment zone is also situated on the ground floor partially detached from the main house block and can be accessible from the garden area as well.
Whereas as we go higher on the first floor is where all the private bedrooms and a small study room / library is situated and on the second floor we have spa and Jacuzzi room. The visual connection is maintained with the greenery outside by placing large openings in all spaces. The staircase area has been placed almost at the center of the house along with a large opening, so that all floors can be evenly illuminated with natural light. A bespoke art piece has been installed at the center part of it. The pieces speaks about restoring our cultural values and it is totally cast in liquid metal. We at a+t believe in creating spaces that are creative and elegant in design incorporates functionality into a simple, uncluttered form.
