A LUSH LIFE

Dovetailing technology with luxe comfort, this upscale villa in Surat by Openideas celebrates nature with its all-pervading presence

- Rupali Sebastian

Aranya — the very word conjures up a vision of verdant fecundity, salving shadows, a restorative atmosphere. This is precisely the essence of the brief that an Ahmedabad-based family gave Openideas for their dream home, a villa is located in Vesu, an upcoming precinct of Surat, within a plotted development. ‘The project is driven by being close to nature, not in her refined, cultured form but more as an organic presence. The ultimate objective was to create a structure that would age gracefully, and subsequently become part of the landscape,” elaborates Monarch Champaneri, who helms the practice along with partners Niralee Champaneri and Nilesh Gajera.

The location, the architect adds further, posed a peculiar problem. “The piece of land on which Aranya would ‘grow’, was part of a group of four plots purchased by a joint family (three brothers and their parents), and this particular plot was flanked on one side by the property allocated to the older brother and on the other, that of the youngest sibling,” explains Monarch. “As it was pre-decided to have no hard boundaries between the structures, issues of privacy became a crucial part of the design debate and development, in addition to the usual site forces of sun and wind direction, topography, etc.”