Vibrant Vibes

KNS Architects combine ease of maintenance and style in one wholesome and aesthetic package for a swanky apartment — for three generations of a family — in Mumbai.

- Rupali Sebastian

 A stylish space needn’t be unpragmatic. And a functional one needn’t score low on aesthetics. A good example of a great marriage of these two aspects of spatial design is this apartment designed by Mumbai-based KNS Architects.

The task on hand involved creating a 4-BHK home (out of a 3,000-square-foot 5-BHK unit in Juhu, Mumbai) for a family of 10 spanning three generations. The functional brief was succinct: a vastu-complaint home, with the four members of the youngest generation to be housed in one bedroom. The aesthetic requirement was even more economically expressed: a modern space, vibrant and easy to maintain.

While the ‘vibrant’ and ‘modern’ gave cues to the look (colour scheme and lines), the latter part of the aesthetic brief directed the architects to the right materials and finishes. But before this came the task of spatial realignment, dictated by vastu and matters of circulation. The existing space was completely gutted, and redefined: rooms rearranged, enlarged and reoriented. The layout as it stands now has the public areas accommodated more or less within one-third of the linear footprint and on one side of the entrance, and the bedrooms on the other.