BY THE RIVER

This home by Mumbai firm Architecture BRIO is designed to enjoy the verdant vistas and the meandering river

Whoever said space is the final frontier, has not seen this Noida apartment. Here, an architect couple use clever spatial planning, creativity and colour to fit everything they need.

They say one must not bring ones work home. However, for us it was the opposite. We are architects and partners at LSDA (Layers Studios for Design and Architecture). When we moved to a new apartment in Greater Noida, the biggest challenge was to turn it into a space that not only reflected our ideology and style of work, but also became a perfect setting for various pieces of artwork, furniture and accessories that we (an art loving couple) have custom made over the past few years.

With the constraint of keeping the civil

related changes to a minimum, the plan of the apartment was optimised very creatively. Strategic location of foldable tables, a collapsible bed and an old-world style window within the house gave us the flexibility to convert spaces. So, our bedrooms double up as our studio and meeting room; we even converted a closed kitchen into an open one with a breakfast counter.

The interiors have been visualised as a riot of colours, shapes and materials coming together as a cohesive unit and forming a background to the artwork we wanted to showcase. Few of the prominent pieces include a Cycle Sculpture made of parts that had come out of our Santro car and Enfield Thunderbird bike; a hand-painted storage cabinet portraying the computer game

Snood, which we love to play; a light fixture made out of empty Nescafe coffee jars; and our favourite, a wall art named KC Ville, comprising a lamppost, station clock, signposts and a feeding tray for our dog called Kalicharan (aka KC).

The biggest drawback of apartment living today is that one has to live with small balconies in the name of open spaces. This was overcome by transforming the two 40 sq ft balconies into gardens with cantilevered planters, a floating bench protruding from the wall, green wall systems and cleverly hung gardening tools, against a colourful backdrop.

For us as a couple, the apartment reflects happiness through the use of colour, materials, incorporation of natural light, and quirky and pop-artish elements. As architects the space management solves our purpose while the chalkboard paint used on the walls allows us to let our creative juices flow.

Clockwise from left: The Cycle Sculpture in the drawing room; chalkboard paint allows them to get creative; the colourful balcony; a corridor that connects the room to the living area

The living cum dining opens into the kitchen (above); colourful interiors (below)

NEHA BHARDWAJ AND GAURAV KAPOOR Principle Architects, Layers Studios for Design & Architecture, Noida www.facebook.com/layersstudios

The bed folds and goes into the wall (top); the kitchen window opens into a breakfast counter (above)