Something Old, Something Blue

Belying its strict budget, this warm and liveable architect Nishita Kamdardesigned apartment in suburban Mumbai is a beautiful balance of narrative elements, spatial value and sensorial experiences.

- Rupali Sebastian

“What makes a home well designed (or not), is whether it has been designed smartly and strategically (or not),” says architect Nishita Kamdar when asked to respond on the popular perception that big budgets equate ‘good’ design, and conversely, small outlays spell mediocrity. She should know. Hailing from space-starved Mumbai, she’s well aware of the travails of a fellow-cityzen in search of a roof of his/her own. Which is why she’s sensitive to budgets. “One of the biggest challenges of designing in Mumbai is the constraint one faces with the budget,” she reveals. “After selling an arm and a leg… clients generally end up with a smaller budget to design their homes, in the hope of building it as the years go by. We have successfully been able to adapt to this challenge and accepted it as a design challenge for us in the office. The demand for good budget home designs is extremely large in Mumbai, and thus this challenge helps us push the boundaries.”