THE GENTLE DIVIDE

Without breaking the flow that once connected all spaces, Studio Dashline's founding trio reimagined a once-communal duplex floor in Bengaluru as an autonomous sanctuary. Through thoughtful restraint and sculptural intention, they prove that separation doesn't always require constructing walls

- TEXT BY KASHISH KAUSHAL

When we first saw the space, it was literally an open square,” recalls Dheeraj Bajaj, Founder and Principal Architect at Studio Dashline. The Open Room is not your conventional apartment; it comes with a fascinating history. Once the central gathering point of a family duplex, this first-floor space faced an earnest shift. The challenge was to convert that openness into a complete residence— living room, dining space, kitchen, lounge, worship area, children's study, and library—without losing the very character that made it special. The answer, as the founders Dheeraj Bajaj, Pranav Dakoria, and Shriya Sohi explain, "lay in restraint". "The challenge was not just spatial but emotional," the trio reflected. Their solution: let furniture and crafted details become dividers, marking territories without breaking flow. The 3,000 sq ft apartment unfolds like a carefully choreographed dance between public and private realms. The living room anchors the composition, arranged around a recliner-style L-shaped sofa, linear bench, and sculptural armchair. Behind this arrangement, a long back unit punctuated with