Light Washed Perspectives

Duplex in Hyderabad

Although urban living, with its stacked apartments, has disconnected us from the earth, a duplex offers the promise of avoiding the flattening of our lives. In addition to the prospects of a high volume, careful design can offer benefits way beyond the mere doubling in the number of rooms if we pay attention to the sequence of experience & inhabitation and manipulate the various allocations within the provided grid and also alter the nature and/ or position of the partitions that define the spaces.

Of course, the intermediate slab over the central dining space was done away with to create a high volume in the middle of the house: emphasizing the social core of the house. All walls abutting this central covered courtyard at the lower level  – except for a part of the south side, which – were done away with, offering a sense of expanse with deep perspectives. The north & east-facing property is protected from harsh sunlight & heat, making the design’s spatial reconfigurations highly effective.

The need for only four bedrooms allowed for the small poorly laid-out kitchen to be moved in place of the second bedroom in the south east at the lower level. This not only makes the kitchen appropriate in size and layout, but its location too affords it an openness while keeping it protected from the entrance and living room. In spite of the largeness in perception due to the opening up, the footprint of each apartment is rather small – under 1500sft. Considering this, a compact staircase has been situated in part of the erstwhile kitchen, while the other part becomes an indoor utility. Spaces underneath both flights of the staircase are used for storage: the lower flight serves the indoor utility, while the upper flight accommodates a wardrobe and a bar for the adaptable living, which can double up as a fifth bedroom.

These changes offer some release to the tiny third bedroom and create access to a common washroom, which was otherwise surprisingly missing.

The reconfigured interior architecture provides dramatic value for the second bedroom on the upper level, which now affords a large washroom with a bathtub and an ancillary study space opening into a balcony. A cantilevered gallery connected the tw p[arts of the upper floor, which are simultaneously separated and brought together with the rest of the house by the void.

The marble-textured vitrified tile flooring was the first to be installed. It was driven by logistic parameters, including the developer’s lack of readiness for a process-intensive floor finish and the limited skills of their flooring team. All other finishes followed from this first choice.

The house comprises swathes of fluted glass, wooden & stone veneers, cabinet laminates & wall tiles, upholstery & curtains and so on, which enrich the spatial experience through diverse visual and tactile engagements. The duplex fulfills the promise of a gently lit high volume animated by rising and descending views, voices and bodies.