The owners of this black and white interiors are a family of four. The husband is the founder of a closed fund, and the wife, a PhD scholar, ably assists him in his venture. The couple has two grown-up kids doing their advanced studies in foreign countries. The core requirement of this family was to have a clutter-free cosy space with emphasis given on functional planning and, at the same time, a breakaway aesthetic. Also, due to their social nature/status, they wanted a space that was inclusive and could serve as a perfect entertainment pad.
Editor’s Note: “This monochromatic-themed residence in Mumbai redefines minimalist elegance. Plush furnishings in layered shades of grey, accented with pops of vibrant hues, infuse a sense of refined comfort. The open layout, enriched with sophisticated materials, enhances the flow of space. Anchoring the design is a striking vaulted ceiling that sets this home apart with its architectural finesse.” ~Simran Khare
The Black and White Interiors of this Home Serves as an Entertainment Pad | DIG Architects
As it stood, we had worked extensively with the couple previously, due to which there was that comfort and mutual understanding from the get-go. Wanting to create that unique aesthetic experience, we also looked towards architecture for inspiration. After a few initial discussions, the idea of architectural vaults fascinated us. Thus we decided to use it as a primary element as a part of the ceiling and be consistent with its exploitation throughout the space, lending it more authenticity. Along with that, elements like gabion walls, solid glass bricks, and Ceppo de Gre stone shared this very architectural intent. On the other hand, we wanted to be pretty miserly and minimalistic with our material palate. Thus, this gave rise to a monochromatic space. So as a result, we wished for and worked towards a space that was minimalistic.
This black and white apartment interiors is nestled in the central suburb of Mumbai, with a carpet area of 4300 sq ft. Our scope was to design the apartment from the bare shell status to its completion. The bigger chunk of existing planning was maintained. However, changes opened up certain spaces of importance. The master walk-in wardrobe was increased in size along with bathroom space. This increase in area was accommodated in the adjoining bedroom which was converted into a study.
In the living room space, an alcove accommodates a decently sized, fully serviced bar along with the main entrance lobby. This resultant increase in spaces spilt over into the kitchen, prompting a complete replanning of it along with the servant quarters. Throughout the apartment, smaller shifts of walls and partitions increase the efficiency of the given space.
The carpet area of this large apartment is around 4300 sq ft. As you enter the house, its rectangular layout features a large living space on your left. This is the mainstay of the house that connects to the personal rooms by means of a long hallway. Adjoining the living room is the main entrance to the apartment, flanked by a bar and kitchen on the rear side of the same.
One of the extensions to the living room is the main entrance to the apartment, along with a bar. These two secondary spaces are carefully designed in a way that they complement the central space. The entrance of the house is part of a large black scoop that extends to the bar and the kitchen. Any amenity or element that is part of this negative space gets more attention than usual and feels like a floating mass.
Opposite the main entrance, an entrance console is flanked by a vertical mass of frosted solid bricks. These solid bricks were an interesting choice of material because the glass and its frosted nature refract the light in an intriguing manner and create this soft glow around it. This partition divides this black scoop into the entrance side and the bar side. A geometric wall installation sits by the side of this console.
The living room is a large cuboidal space. The extensions to this cuboid turn into a bar, an entrance, and a large balcony. To control the scale of this cuboid, the ceiling has been subdivided into quadrants, and the vaulted ceiling cuts through these quadrants on the length side. Vaults are mainly an architectural element used in the construction of buildings throughout history. By utilising these throughout the apartment, it renders the intent more authentic and realistic. Projector screenings happen at one end of this space while a service unit for the dining sits on the other end of this cuboid. The wall cabinets have sandwiched metal mesh used for the sliding glass shutters.
The extended portion of living room seating faces towards the dining in an attempt to establish a dialogue between the two, to make dining a less isolated activity. This setup has more potential to become a social space with guests spilling over towards dining, following the client’s requirements. Also, the Moon, a lighting pendant designed by Davide Groppi, being central to the space, holds the entire space together. In fact, the very sight of the moon from the main entrance sets up the visitor with that bit of curiosity about the space.
The seating square of the living room has Ceppo De Gre marble across the floor. The dining room and the rest of the area have light Gre Ceppo on the floors too. Ceppo de Gre is used widely in the facades of buildings in Europe but, in contrast, is rarely used in India. The personality of the stone is rugged and of architectural nature. By specifying it for the floors and walls, we wanted to give the house a bit of a masculine feel and also incorporate the uniqueness factor.
The material palette of living and the rest of the black and white apartment interiors have been rendered in grayscale. To create interest in this scheme, we encouraged the clients to use a lot of plant greens in the space. This infuses life into spaces.
The long hallway connects to the guest room first in the sequence. It’s a simple, clean space with a headboard done in Cubo granite from RK marble. The vaults here are of narrower widths. One of the walls has a cutout cladding in the same Cubo stone housing the temple space. This cutout is covered by double-leaf sliding shutters to cover the temple.
Next in the line of the hallway, you come across the study and son’s room. The study has a warm palate with the introduction of oak veneer, as clients wanted a space that was cosy and bright. Moreover, the study table is placed flanking the window. Also, on either side of it, there is ample storage for books, a mini fridge and printer, etc. The study itself is a long slab of wood spanning from end to end without any intermittent supports. There is an L-shaped sofa close to the entrance for entertaining guests.
Moving further, opposite the study entrance sits the son’s bedroom space. The room has a comfortable space along with a study and an armchair for lounging. The mood of the room is cosy, with a predominantly monochrome material palate. However, this greyscale is broken by the introduction of a green colour in the form of a study table and a tapestry of the armchair. The headboard wall is made of unequal vertical slats of a rugged finished granite stone. The ceiling of each room comes in the form of a large trough that contains the vaults within them. This move detaches the ceiling from the wall.
Moving further is the master and daughter’s bedroom at the end of the hallway. The master bedroom starts with its passage, which leads first to the entrance of the walk-in wardrobe + toilet and then to the bedroom itself. The bedroom has a large four-postered bed along with Eames loungers on its side. Moreover, the headboard wall is a combination of frosted glass bricks at the bottom and strips of grey veneer at the top. The glass bricks can also be backlit, lending ambient light to the space. The vaults in the ceiling are up-lit by a long, tensioned rope light between two ends of the ceiling. As mentioned earlier, a series of three sliding doors creates an interesting permutation combination of scenarios for the use of the room.
Daughter’s bedroom is a bit of breakaway WRT the material palette used in the house in general. The mood of the room is light and bright, with the use of white for the shell predominantly. There is also a large soft padded bed in the centre, with the headboard wall cladding in a rugged finished granite. Moreover, the study table is suspended between two verticals with no intermittent supports in between. The peripheral duct spaces are used for miscellaneous storage. Moreover, they are hidden by the large sliding door, making them look like moving walls.
In continuation of the architectural theme of black and white interiors, the bar was also imagined as part of this huge black scoop that started at the main entrance of the house and stretched to the entrance to the kitchen. The materiality of this scoop was the black ceramic floor, black PU-coated walls, and ceiling. The bar itself was conceptualised as a part of the Gabion wall for its facia wall. However, this was made possible by trapping randomly sized stones in the metal wire meshes.
In addition to that, this arrangement can be backlit by a series of LED lights mounted on an acrylic partition supporting this very vertical mass of stones. Flanking this bar, opposite the main entrance, there is a partition of frosted glass bricks. This partition creates this interplay between the bar and the main entrance. The refractive quality of this glass lightens up this otherwise intense space.
When designing an offbeat black and white interiors, there come a plethora of challenges on the way to deal with. The first of them was the construction of vaults. Even though a representation of the original form, this had to be dealt with creative solutions. Also, the integrated lighting within the vaults without disturbing their purity posed a challenge. The formation of vaults was achieved by creating an archival template to lend its shape. The integrated lighting was a result of a linear aluminium channel (that acted as a lighting track), which was supported by a wooden framework around the vaults themselves.
Another challenge came to us in the form of planning. The original layout had 5 bedrooms. The client brief expected us to create 4 bedrooms along with a study. Carving out the study, its adjoining washroom, and a large master bathroom along with a walk-in wardrobe in a singular space was tricky, especially dealing with its services like HVAC, plumbing, etc.
In the master bedroom, the TV positioning overlapped with the window location. Also, two extended niches on either side of the window (which were used as a built-in study and an extended storage box) posed a challenge in terms of its end use and overall space formation of the bedroom. However, this issue was solved by having moving walls on sliding tracks. One of the moving walls had a TV travelling along with it. Thus, all of them together created a permutation-combination of various scenarios of utility depending on where you positioned them.
Moving further, the master bedroom has a long installation of solid glass bricks behind the four-poster bed. This translucent mass of bricks gets backlit. The installation wasn’t as much of a construction challenge as the upkeep of LED lights, which backlit the wall due to their length. However, this was solved by creating sliding tracks that accommodated the linear LEDs in them, which could allow us to pull them out seamlessly at the time of maintenance.
Our design philosophy for this black and white interiors has always been ‘call it for what it is. When we think of a space, we think of it as a volume and not in fragments. It is very hard to say which part or aspect of the apartment signifies our signature style, as we don’t work with a particular style. In most of the cases, we try to respond to the space and context, if any. Working with a bigger idea and chopping it down to a micro level for consistency in design throughout the space satisfies our design philosophy.
Fact File
Designed by: DIG Architects
Project Type: Residential Interior Design
Project Name: Vaulted B/W Haus
Location: Mumbai
Year Built: 2023
Project Size: 4500 Sq.ft
Principal Architects: Amit Khanolkar & Advait Potnis
Lead Team: Esha Indulkar
Design Team: Manasi Pawar
Technical Team: Fenil Gala
Photograph Courtesy: Ishita Sitwala
Manufacturers: Davide Groppi, MDF Italia
Civil Engineering: Laxman Interiors
Firm’s Instagram Link: DIG Architects
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