Bangalore Houzz: Natural Materials & Eco-Design Cut Back Carbon
Wright Inspires creates a home that adapts to the city's semi-tropical climate with natural light and airy spaces
Who lives here: A couple, their son and their pet dog
Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka
Year built: 2019
Size: 260 square metres (2800 square feet)
Number of bedrooms and bathrooms: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
Architect & Interior designer: Wright Inspires
Photos by: Yash Raj Jain
The clients approached Wright Inspires with a brief for “an environmentally friendly, utilitarian minimal space” – a request completely in sync with the ethos of the eco-responsive design firm. Prathima Seethur, chief architect, set about creating a warm and welcoming home replete with a wide range of natural stones and materials. The flooring is mainly Kota and Jaisalmer stone, pink Magadi stones are used for the basement walls and all the wood used in the house is recycled. Terracotta and exposed brick walls give the home an earthy feel. Seethur further explains, “The house has solar panels for energy and heating water, it uses a large number of LED lights and has a huge underground tank for rainwater conservation.”
Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka
Year built: 2019
Size: 260 square metres (2800 square feet)
Number of bedrooms and bathrooms: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
Architect & Interior designer: Wright Inspires
Photos by: Yash Raj Jain
The clients approached Wright Inspires with a brief for “an environmentally friendly, utilitarian minimal space” – a request completely in sync with the ethos of the eco-responsive design firm. Prathima Seethur, chief architect, set about creating a warm and welcoming home replete with a wide range of natural stones and materials. The flooring is mainly Kota and Jaisalmer stone, pink Magadi stones are used for the basement walls and all the wood used in the house is recycled. Terracotta and exposed brick walls give the home an earthy feel. Seethur further explains, “The house has solar panels for energy and heating water, it uses a large number of LED lights and has a huge underground tank for rainwater conservation.”
The entrance opens into a large space that is designed in an open layout, with lots of natural light flooding in through the stairwell next to the front door, creating a bright, welcoming ambience.
The living room is cocooned in a layer of exposed terracotta blocks, broken into sections by bands of white, both on the walls and ceiling, imparting a warm rustic air to the space. The wooden partition with blue strips hides the open kitchen from full view. The dashes of white and blue break up the expanse of brick, balancing and lightening the visual weight of the terracotta.
Living room sofas: Fabindia
Living room sofas: Fabindia
The kitchen is the centre of action and the hub of the home. It is sleek and utilitarian, and has a vantage view of the house. Granite countertops are highlighted by pale yellow seamless drawers. The green-tinted backsplash gives the muted space a touch of dynamic colour.
Find an architect on Houzz
Find an architect on Houzz
The home has a neatly tucked-in dining room that does not feel constrained, thanks to the height of the ceiling and the daylight that pours in from above. Neat, unfussy design keeps the dining furniture unobtrusively functional. A simple leaf-textured concrete lamp lights up the space at night.
Dining table and chairs: Fabindia
Dining table and chairs: Fabindia
This showstopper spiral staircase exemplifies the design ethos of the house: minimalist lightness. Its wooden steps wind up the stairwell, taking minimal visual and physical space, the spiralling sweep adding graceful movement in design. The landing is like a miniature garden, amply lit by the skylight overhead.
See staircase designs for small spaces
See staircase designs for small spaces
Seethur explains, “The stairwell is such that it moves eloquently through the house, designed to ensure that natural light propagates through all floors of the home, making it a sight worth seeing.”
The crowning beauty, however, is the ovular skylight at 40 feet that floods the entire home with natural light. The house gets its name, ‘Ambara’, which means sky in Kannada, from the patch of blue that connects to the heart of house at all times.
Browse through photos of staircase designs on Houzz
Browse through photos of staircase designs on Houzz
The staircase descends to the basement to the entertainment zone.
On the first floor, a wooden bridge connects all the rooms on that level.
In the master bedroom, the trademark exposed brick motif continues. Polished wooden floors match the walls in tone, imbuing the room with warm colour. Here, too, creamy white is used to balance the visual weight of reddish brick.
“The roof, composed of a half-vaulted curved terracotta filler-slab, is a minor architectural marvel in its defiance of gravity,” Seethur says.
“The roof, composed of a half-vaulted curved terracotta filler-slab, is a minor architectural marvel in its defiance of gravity,” Seethur says.
A bay-window in a corner of the room is the perfect spot to watch the birds on the honge (Indian beech) tree just outside and to look out at the park beyond.
Furnishings in the bedroom: Aar Cee Textiles
Tiles throughout the house: Maheswari Impex
Read more:
Bangalore Houzz: This Home Celebrates Light, Brick & Floating Balconies
Thrissur Houzz: A Union of Brick Walls, Metal Screens & Mangalore Tiles
Tell us:
What did you like the most about this house? Tell us in Comments below.
Tiles throughout the house: Maheswari Impex
Read more:
Bangalore Houzz: This Home Celebrates Light, Brick & Floating Balconies
Thrissur Houzz: A Union of Brick Walls, Metal Screens & Mangalore Tiles
Tell us:
What did you like the most about this house? Tell us in Comments below.
