Peacock House-ESSTEAM
From Architects: This urban modern house is a beautiful blend of Nature, Art and Architecture. The house is adhered to welcome all the greens and art installations to experience every space differently from every corner yet bind them together to make them one. The client’s aspiration of having utterly unique yet simple house was taken care of while designing the house which is highly functional and selecting materials which are easy to maintain. The diverse taste of the couple for the aesthetics of the house resulted in the outer facade of the house as raw exposed concrete cube with corroded copper while all the interior walls are polished surfaces.
YOU SAW IT FIRST ON THE ARCHITECT’S DIARY
Located in the part of the city having predominantly bungalows with gardens that used to be frequented by peacocks in the past, our chosen inspiration for the aesthetic for this home was the PEACOCK in the huge 45′ X 22′ garden. The lily pool with surrounding greens and the peacock sitting in the planter welcomes you giving a very warm feeling to the entrance of the house. The formal living acts as a modern covered court which visually connects to dining and informal seating and is overlooked by study and the bridge on the upper floor. This double height court has a feature wall of cast in-situ exposed concrete with champa(Frangipani) imprints and an art installation of the abstract form of peacock feathers. The terrace floor has a master suite with a beautiful private terrace garden.
Cube form has dominated all design geometries of the house, starting from the entire form till the texture of the concrete, even the wood on the stair wall is cut in perfect squares. The garden is engulfed by the copper frame having peacock feather motif.
We have learnt and understood well over time is that it is futile to even try to imitate Nature by trying to make something artificial look like the real thing – that never works. The more interesting thing is to observe and extract the essence and reinterpret and express it in your own way. We interpreted the basic form of the peacock in a more geometric, origami kind of way, and then derived a motif for its feather along the same lines using more of angular geometry.
The material palette of exposed concrete, copper, imported Italian marbles, polished wood, and hues and tints of colours of peacock used in the house creates a balanced blend of rustic house architecturally with clean and sophisticated spaces internally.
Project name: Peacock House
Architect’ Firm: ESSTEAM
Website: www.essteam.in
Lead Architects: Snehal Shah, Jigar Dalal, Anisha Jariwala
Project location: Peacock House
Gross Built Area: 10150 sqft
Photo credits: Ishita Sitwala
Photographer’s website: The Fishy Project
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