The first thing that hits you about The Geometrical Condo is vast undivided spaces – inside out, the volumes and even the surfaces are of a consciously aggrandised scale. The clean massing of pure white cubes in the exterior justifies the project’s name given by the designers and also articulates their approach to the design. The plain surfaces of brilliant white walls and the stone masonry compound walls both offer the perfect backdrop for the magnificent landscape created around the house, be it the rhythmically spaced grassy mounds or the tall palms and plantains or even the rows of shimmering metallic pots installed along the length of an expansive waterbody. The owner’s love for nature gets subtly expressed even by the designer grooves in the white external walls which take the shape of a branching tree trunk making minimal appearances, often pairing off with metallic grill shades cut in a matching pattern projecting off the surface.

This first impression of a brilliant exterior prepares a visitor for the magnificence of 12000 sq ft of built up area inside the house, distributed over two floors and dispensed around a large courtyard. One enters the house through an entrance lobby placed next to the central courtyard roughly around the centre of the house. This lobby can lead you to a massive living room to its left or to a long passage placed alongside the courtyard, which divides the house into two zones placed at its two ends. The design approach evident from the home’s layout is one of having fewer but voluminous spaces instead of dividing the space into too many rooms.

The living room, as mentioned before, is a very large affair in white – uncomplicated but large and comfortable white upholstered sofas are placed against a seemingly endless swathe of white curtains going around three sides, with silver patterns reminiscent of the rows of sparkling pots/ vases in the pool outside. The white Italian marble floor as well as the white false ceiling is also in an almost unbroken plane, with just the dark wood of the TV and curio display units and the thematically pot/ vase shaped legs of the white marble topped centre tables bringing in the contrast.  

While the guest bedroom, a big puja room and a library can be found on the same end of the passage as the living room, the other end brings up a master bedroom for the old parents alongside the kitchen and its ancillaries. A spacious and uncluttered dining room next to the kitchen opens onto a smaller sit out on one side and looks through a wide glass sliding door at the central court across the passage.

The double height volume of the courtyard gets accentuated by the exposed profile of the staircase rising at one end of it. The hexagonal grille and triangulated metal mesh covering the court’s exterior face cast fascinating patterned shadows on the courtyard floor, highlighting the geometrical theme of the entire scheme. Comfortable armchairs placed on the tiled floor under the retractable transparent roof make an inviting setting amidst palms in planters placed around the yard.

On the upper floor, two large master bedroom units find their place at the other end of the passage while the children’s bedroom can be found at the same end as the stairs. At this end, just above the living room downstairs, is a massive home theatre equipped with a screen that practically covers the wall at one end and four rows of luxurious recliners placed on a stepped wooden floor. The acoustical materials used for the design of surrounding walls make for a complete theatre experience. A charming bar finished in fairy-tale pink upholstery and warm wood patterns is placed at the back of the theatre to reinforce the party mood.

While plain white Italian marble flooring spreads itself in every major living space of the house the ceiling too remains a white undivided plane everywhere. Only the storage units, tables and other such pieces of furniture bring up the contrast in dark wooden hues. Beds, sofas, couches, recliners and the like in every room are all simple yet ample, cushy and inviting. One can easily sense the emphasis on creating a no-nonsense, uncluttered, unlimited spatial experience in every possible segment of the layout.

The wide courtyard, centrally placed on the home’s western face, injects greens, daylight and breezes into the core of the house through its shaded environs. The rest of the building’s external faces have cavity walls with deep set windows to insulate the interiors and shade the openings against the harsh Gujarat sun. Thus, a balance is achieved between protecting the home’s inmates from natural elements and keeping them closely connected as well.

The client’s brief to the designers emphasised on spaciousness as they were to move in to this new home from a very congested and cluttered environment in their previous residence. This basic point has definitely guided the project’s design where the designers have made every effort to create unbroken, undivided and unhindered volumes and surfaces throughout the scheme. Traditional Indian planning techniques like courtyards and cavity walls address the climatic context while the materials, furniture styles, finishes and décor elements like the relief mural on a bedroom wall depicting silhouettes of London buildings or another one with different parts of the globe pictured with airway routes give the house a global appeal.