This residence in the Kerala capital is a museum of delightful sights and curiously cut stones. More than the novelty of ideas it is the design conceptualisation that begets the apartment a thumbs-up!
Another refreshing aspect of this quaintly designed apartment at Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, is that all the material used to deck up the interiors is old, used or rejected old wood, stones, and what not. If old is gold, then it’s a goldmine here. The novelty again is that you can never make out the old from the new.
Why the different look
Since almost all apartments are typically monotonous stereotypes, owners Awad Hamza and wife Shahina wanted to break this structural dullness. They had to have a fresh new feel always inside the flat. That is why they opted for hitherto unthought of concepts to clear away that visual weariness.
Though the couple was for environment-friendly building materials, they were against chopping down trees or breaking boulders to source stuff with which to build their home. From this conviction arose the concept of aesthetically re-using material that was once used. The trend in building homes with re-used material like wood and stone is not new. Designers have in fact successfully worked with such material, thereby cutting cost effectively. But laying out an interior design with used and old material is also not a new idea.
Stunning aesthetics
The floor is what meets the eye first. They have been laid with small wooden planks.
Ferrocement seating and shelves that are oxide-coated and polished, huge slabs of rock for dining table and pantry counter and cupboards and cots with packaged wood are some features which make this Five–C flat in Artecks Florence so distinctively different.
The small wooden planks on the floor are all sawmill rejects. They were cut into 2 to 2.5 ft long strips, planed and then polished. The floor is actually a mix of teak, rosewood and anjili (Wild Jack).
Wood that is hollow and eaten from within is seldom used even for government buildings. It is this type of wood that’s gone into the design concept of the flat. Two of the drawing room seats have been crafted from this hollow wood.
The coffee table in the drawing room, the dining seats and the frames on the walls were all brought across from Auroville in Puducherry. These artefacts and pieces of furniture would remind one of the severe cyclonic storm in 2012 which uprooted a lot of trees in the Union Territory. The Auroville furniture was built from the wood and roots of those trees. An enterprise crafting furniture from wood thus got has been functioning under the guidance of architect Tejaswini.
Wood for kitchen cabinets and headboards for beds is from the pinewood planks stacked inside huge containers shipped from overseas. Though dusting all the panels is not a pleasant task, the design is nonetheless, eye-catching and unusual, which was exactly what the owner wished for.
Granite wonders
Two giant pieces of granite found discarded in a quarry are the highlight of the interiors. These stones have been converted into the dining table and pantry counter.
The zany design element of the dining table is its positioning. The huge 300 kg rock slab rests on a block of bricks with its top concreted to hold its weight. The sides of the granite have been covered with “moulding resin” which gives the effect of glass. The mould was made at the site itself and the resin was poured in. This experimental craft is yet to be tried out in Kerala.
The main lights are made of moulds made in similar-shaped rock and filled with resin, fibre and other material. This gives the effect of handmade paper for the lights. This technique while being low on cost is high on aesthetics.
The 700 kg pantry counter, two metres long and two feet broad, has a wash counter cut into it. Carting it up five floors was a feat in itself.
Ferrocement and oxide
The in-built sofa in the drawing room and the book shelf are of ferrocement. They look shiny and brilliant after a coating of cement oxide and polish.
Oxide of the same colour has been used for the kitchen countertop and on the floor. The bathroom walls also have an oxide coating.
On the whole, the flat is a cornucopia of different design elements in varied hues.
Project facts:
Location: Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram
Area: 1, 700 sq ft
Architect: M. Archana, Wallmakers
Year of completion: Jan 2018.
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