With the help of a diverse material palette in varied permutations and combinations, patterns take centre stage in this house designed by DesignRitmo.
Patterns dominate the design philosophy in this elegant house, aptly named ‘Pattern Box’ by the designers – Surat based firm, DesignRitmo. Summing up to 540 square meters and spread over three levels, the inspiring interiors were imagined as a play of patterns using different materials in a single box.
Principal Architect Dipesh Kheni explains to us, “DesignRitmo’s concept was to generate different patterns and most of them are based on graphics within a simple line grid. The layout of the house is also in accordance to this simple grid.”
There is a clear definition of spatial zoning – private spaces, the bedrooms, are accommodated on the second floor while public spaces like the living room, dining room and family room are planned on the first floor, and the ground floor is restricted to services, storage and landscape.
The house is designed in three levels, the main house being accommodated in the second and third level. The level differences give the facade a beautiful geometric juxtapositioning.
A mixed range of materials, textures and patterns compose a different story for all these separate spaces, and combined they induce a sense of calm recollection.
The approach to the main house is dramatised by many landscape features including a striking white staircase which leads up to the house entrance.
A combination of a white wall lined with planters, an inclined lawn and a lone tree, becomes the ideal ensemble for the approach. On the first landing that one steps onto, is a beautiful garden with a water feature, that reaches out in a serene welcome.
A few steps more and one arrives at the house and into the pattern and material repartee.
Geometric floral cut-outs on the main door and louvered veranda doors drench the living room in a beautiful speckled light pattern that is reflected by the polished stone flooring. The dark and rich colours of the surfaces, wood being the dominant material and the striking illumination patterns together create a warm and lush aura.
Open planning provides a continum of space right from the living room to the dining-kitchen zone, with only the staircase in between becoming a segregation indicator. The DesignRitmo team used different material palettes and pattern plays to give the two spaces their own separate and distinct identities, but connected them nonetheless through a basic pattern grid.
White surfaces distinguish the dining-kitchen space and the family room, where the spatial dimensions and alabaster colouring render an appearance of a vast space. Strip lighting in the ceiling only adds to the spacious feel enhancing the clarity in design.
Even the staircase boasts of a light appearance. Pine and teak wood floating treads, a railing that has criss-cross patterns made out of ropes, adjoining walls with interesting art and glazed walls filtering abundant sunlight as a backdrop – all this effectively creates a unique identity for the staircase which becomes an unobtrusive eye catching feature at every level.
As one explores the second floor housing, we quickly realise that each of the bedrooms has a specific signature pattern according to the tenor of the room’s essence.
In the master bedroom, a focus wall clad in black stone makes a statement; while in the other rooms patterns highlighted as art make a point.
One can’t help but notice the different material combinations used by DesignRitmo; stone cladding and stone veneer were put to use; copper sheets for the Indian feel and graphic patterns for the modern touch was also utilized; Kaddapa in combination with Sadarli granite also finds a place in this varied material palette.
The same pattern follows in the facade outside. Notes Dipesh Kheni, “We have connected the interiors and the exteriors via patterns not in terms of just a physical reflection, but also through light and ambience.” An interesting play of negative and positive features in the spaces is the tool used by DesignRitmo to paint the entire house in a beautiful and inspiring style.
The owners had just one design request, ‘a simple but dramatic ambience in the house’. And the team has stayed true to the condition by revealing the house’s story in a series of details that show off the best in a modest and elegant display of creativity.
Text By K Parvathy Menon
Photographs Courtesy 50mm Media Production, Surat
Contact
email: info@designritmo.com
web: www.designritmo.com
