Nestled in a quiet residential neighbourhood in Gurugram, the Doon Residence makes a modern and distinctly minimalist statement. Tasked with bringing the family’s design sensibilities to life, the Picturesque Studio conceptualised the house to frame its ten-thousand square feet built fabric within strong linear profiles and to contribute a memorable addition to the Gurgaon Skyline.
Project Name – The Doon Residence
Typology – Residential
Plot Area – 1,200 sqyrds
Built-Up Area – 10,000 sqft
Location – DLF Phase 4, Gurgaon
Year of Completion – 2019
Architecture Design Firm – The Picturesque Studio
Principal Architect – Priya Doon
Photography – Nivedita Gupta
Videography – Suryan and Dang
Text Credit – Sadhya Bhatnagar
The house is divided into two zones — the private and the semi private. A water body runs from the front to the rear lawn beneath a connecting corridor, lending a sense of calm to the place. The straight-line facade is a product of juxtaposed cuboidal volumes, bold in its form, and clad with earthy materials like beige and black leather finished granites and IPE wood. The use of industrial materials like concrete, Corten steel and aluminium helps the facade provide a strong connection to the contextually rooted material palette.
A double height entrance welcomes the visitor into spacious and quietly luxurious interiors. Greens are aplenty in the Doon Residence, making for seamless indoor-outdoor connections and panoramic vistas. A design vocabulary similar to the facade extends indoors, with the family’s memorabilia-filled private lounge spanning out to an exterior deck. The area, along with the adjoining dining room, produces a feeling of belonging. Industrial touches running through the space give it a casually distressed look appropriate for everyday, carefree functionality. Adjacent to the common spaces, a sleek cantilevered staircase is placed in the centre of the home, providing a lofty lightness to its surroundings.
When it comes to adding character to personal spaces, the challenge is to reign it in, while not going overboard with a kind of minimalism that can feel boring and uninspired. In the formal living and dining room, a simple palette of warm, earthy tones is elevated by strong forms, rich fabrics, and accents of glass and metal, giving the space a distinctly luxuriant effect. Separating the dining from the living area is a sleek Laminam clad fireplace. It demarcates the two spaces while still allowing a visual connection between them. Black granite and William Grey Italian marble used in both spaces add to the earthy tonality and a clean aesthetic. Hints of patterns appear through the room in metal art installations, modern lighting and walnut veneer tinches in the millwork by Alsorg India, all from a highly diverse material palette.
The canvas of natural materials used in the common areas stretches into the private spaces, with a discreetly opulent setting leading the design for the bedrooms. The primary bedroom, divided into multiple zones for ease of functionality, is tied together through private greens full of Raphis Palms and natural lighting flooding in through the large bay windows. The focal point of the room is a deodar cladded bay window that serves as a reading nook. The iconic Indian wood offsets the room’s moody colour palette and fills it with its distinctive aroma. In line with the design scheme of the house, the study corner hosts a rectangular, ceiling suspended work desk. The clean, straight lines that dominate the room give it a contemporary edge and the leather upholstery and rich fabrics add sophistication.
The master bedroom comprises a variety of materials in shades of beige and brown. A leather clad wall behind the bed retains a long wardrobe that runs across the back of the room and is accessible from both sides of the bed. A white-painted brick wall and accents of blue in the rug and artwork are set against the rich tones of the leather and the warm and cool elements of the room are seamlessly tied together with a statement chandelier in black and gold.
The guest bedroom celebrates the simplicity of natural materials. White-painted brick, wood, and leather have been used to break up the monotony of the space. A blanket of wood cladding at one end of the room visually demarcates zones while establishing symmetrical, neat lines. The pop of colour from the metal framed, wine-hued leather armchairs adds intrigue to the soft tones of creams, beiges, and browns that run through the room.
Inside the kids’ bedroom, one can witness a playful affair with a fun, textured wallpaper and a cute playhouse-shaped bed to bring it all together. Irregularly sized oak veneer boxes are mix-and-matched to create a unique storage system for the room with push-to-open fittings on the white shutters so the surfaces remain seamless. Pops of blue enliven the space, while the riot of colours is balanced by soothing grey tones.
By engineering simplicity through a heavy, earthy material palette, the interiors of this home are equipped with clear connections to the outdoors. Crafted of linearity and an insightful choice of colours, the Doon Residence attains a timeless, lived-in character within a modern luxury, minimalist aesthetic. The Picturesque Studio cleverly brings out the clients’ passions and personality while rooting the design of this home in functionality.