“Architecture is about well–being. I think that people want to feel good in a space … on one hand, it’s about shelter, but it’s also about pleasure.” – Zaha Hadid.
Architecture and its impact on built spaces have existed for centuries. The spaces designed as physical environments and the culture that inspires them represent how one views and dictates the World around them. One’s depiction of the World and the comfort one desire is a subjective context and experience, however, with a probability of making others feel similar.
Project Name: Shivam
Office website: https://www.archolioneeds.com/
Firm Location: Coimbatore, Tamilnadu
Project Location: Coimbatore
Completion Year: 2023
Area: 1200 sqft
Principal Architect: Ar.Kushal Surana
Designed by: Ar.Kushal Surana
“We shape our buildings; after that, they shape us.” – Sir Winston Churchill.
It’s incredible how a well-designed space has such a massive and sensitive impact on its users yet fails to be the most considered aspect of the industry. Commercialising Architecture and Interior spaces threaten the community and well-being of the user’s mindset! Designing spaces that fail to align with the user’s activities and philosophies eventually does not comfort them, making them feel unusual or “Not in their Space”.
Shivam” by Archolio: The Design Studio considers these major factors while designing a very simple yet homely interior for a family of five in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. The mood and activities inspire each element used in the house and stand as an amalgamation of a space designed for each user separately yet for all of them together.
The design brief desired and demanded a cosy space – in an apartment on the third floor of a High- rise building around a lake in the city’s heart. With an area of approx. 1200 sqft, and with minimal civil changes, the design process was initiated in 2022. Includes three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living area and a corridor connecting the bedrooms. Designing a space with minimum to no décor and only the necessary furniture was the biggest challenge in the project!
The kid’s room was designed with a concept to compliment the playful energy of the user, which is well depicted by the hexagonal patterns in the ceiling and the bed design. This Bedroom involves the major civil work of the project– the provision of the bay window. Allowing the user to feel comfortable in their space was the agenda – a child that loves to read now has a cosy corner to enjoy his fictional World alongside a visually impairing view of the lake on the outside.
The master bedroom is designed similarly, embracing the user’s calm and humble personality with white finished furniture. The monotony of the white view is broken with maroon strips towards the corner of each.
Keeping in sync with the entire apartment interior, special cautions were introduced to access maximum sunlight and minimum furniture to avoid cluttering the space leaving feasibility for enough movement.
Architecture in today’s World is a complex and abstract language that communicates to resolve and remind. The environment, the built form and the spaces around us have an exceptional impact on how one feels and responds. Our subconscious reacts to our environment, making us feel completely relaxed and aware in some while making us feel claustrophobic in others. It said that the art of carving spaces had generated its presence over the years in a way where the creator did not make a deliberate effort but underlined its presence through it. Such has been the power of carving spaces for individuals specifically.
Shivam by Archolio is an exceptional example of how minimal interior projects can carve an impact on their users with simplicity and by taking a less travelled approach towards designing. The project also delivers a message of how minimising clutter in conventional interior projects can still offer scope to sculpt envelopes – user-specific.
