KANSO HOUSE

Designed by The Melange Studio, this modern residence employs simplistic lines and a warm natural material palette to craft a traditionally Zen space.

Residential Interior design  
Built-Up Area – 600 sqft
Location –New Delhi
Year of Completion – 2021
Photography – Avesh Gaur

Kanso House, designed by The Melange Studio, is set (at Ashok Vihar in New Delhi) in a neighbourhood with narrow streets, houses overlooking each other, and pathways lined with cars on either side. Primarily, a chaotic urban setting.

The studio was assigned to design a floor spread across 600 sq ft which originally comprised of two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, and a balcony with a stairway attached to the terrace. Having lived in Japan for some years, the clients wanted a space that is heavily influenced from Japanese designs and follows the culture of minimalism.

For this family of four The Melange Studio created a space which was dynamic in nature — where, instead of dividing the whole floor plate into two rooms, sliding folding partitions were used to divide and connect the spaces. This let sunlight to travel till the end of the room, and also allowed the user to recreate his personal habitat whenever required. “The personal spaces are treated like memorabilia that goes on your desk after a vacation, or that first scribble of your little one that gets proudly framed on the living room wall,” explains Dhruv.

Introducing movable partitions to connect the master’s to the kid’s bedroom and further the master bedroom to the balcony made the space dynamic in nature. This also allowed the clients to dictate the level of interactivity in the space they reside — one day they could enjoy solitude by keeping the doors of their room shut, and the next day they can open the doors to connect with their kids. All the doors in the space disappear from the room, allowing the user to move freely between the indoor and outdoor to utilise the green balcony.

To meet the storage needs of the user, a lot of hidden multi-purpose storages were introduced in the space. A study table, kid’s toy storage (in the form of a column) and dressing cabinet were worked out together in a way that it all appears to be one element. Since the surroundings were urban and chaotic, the architects created an inward looking residence by introducing green screens in front of the facade facing the other building, and adding green plants in the balcony.

Keeping the peripheral walls intact, almost all the inner walls were broken down to make the space dynamic, and create an indoor-outdoor connection. Since the false ceilings were low earlier, the ceiling height was reconstructed and increased to give it a better volumetric proportion. Curves were introduced in the ceiling to connect it seamlessly to the walls, and to soften the edges of the room. This made the whole ambience calm and Zen-like. Once the shell was ready, a singular lime plaster finish was used on it to give it a seamless look. The subtle layering of the customised artwork on the walls of the two rooms binds them together, yet acts as a distinct feature of that room when experienced individually.

A minimal and clean material palette runs throughout the Kanso House. While the walls and ceiling has a lime plaster finish, the flooring is wooden oak engineered floor from FCML. All the woodwork (fixed and movable) has been finished in wood veneer and stained to different shades. Original brass handles customised by local vendor add hints of gold in the space. Handmade Spanish tiles in the balcony area in a blue shade adds an authentic look to the space.

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