Hello, I am Prem Trivedi, co-founder of SINGLE BRICK Studio, We are an architectural/ interior and landscape designing studio based in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.
We love to work on residential projects for being affected by how people live and how they spend their day-to-day moments from you know making breakfast in the morning to how they keep their kids to bed.
It's quite amazing being part of that process and making those quite special.
We call this project the whispering veneer.
It is quite very hard to make the decision because we know how many different possibilities there are when it comes to design, you never really finish, you know it can always be developed or refined, so we ended up working with the root principle by understanding clients behaviour patterns.
The brief was to keep basic and minimal design aspects but at the same time-space should feel rich and elegant. Clients wanted a simple way of life that should consist of a unique quality in it.
The material we used in the house is quite typical and standard. We haven't introduced anything that is out of the norm but what we have done is we have treated each material, both in its construction and finish, we believe a quite a sort of unique way which is no longer recognisable or seen in a typical form. So some of the good examples might be this beautiful concrete wall showcasing different grain and textures of the plaster, another is the pattern and textures of wood veneer.
We wanted to create that softness and tactility that responded to the touch and human presence. So materials like oak veneer have been used which not only have a softer feeling but could also bring light deeper into the apartment. There is also a sense of beauty in natural materials. Its texture, its tone, and the pattern of veins of wood are expressed in quite a simple way.
The use of a muted and soft colour palette leads to the vibrancy of the house. The use of stone Crete texture blends with the overall classical minimalistic theme of the house. All the materials in the space would let the space feel light and airy through which the room feels bigger than what it is There was a lot of attention given to how to make the space so soft.
There is a three-dimension quality to the joinery externally and all the materials are used like oak wood, matt finish metal, back-painted glass, soft rugged curtains and sofa and dining fabric. being used so even when you are touching it you feel the three-dimensional quality to it but also has a little bit nod to that classical era rather than having a sleek kind of built-in quality to it.
I think one of the challenges is how much to design rather than making juxtaposition of every element.
I think it's is lovely to say "new is new and old is old " but having a conversation between the two elements together, I think that's beautiful as well.
We are very interested in light and quality of space and that comes first. It's the sun and the shading and sustainable principles that are built into this project are very important to us
When you have few materials in your hand then you tend to see more of the details
Matt Grey laminate moulded with beading Patti and back painted glass display units have been used in the kitchen which blends with a wave-like and uneven pattern of stone tile cladding
To summarize this project
That day at the end when we finally gave the key to the owners and we left it was a really special kind of moment to look around because everybody opened their cameras because they were so proud of this project they had put together in sweat that they want to show this to their relatives. It is not often you kinda see on the project that kind of pride that goes into work. That's the proud moment and all the groundwork that they really put into it paid off, we have achieved it.
This project really kind of successfully reflects the way we work in existing architecture to completely transform the feeling or the proportions of the space.