May 13, 2006

Saradha Nivas...




Today I visited 'Saradha Nivas' the residence I designed in 2004 for Mr.Jawahar in Madurai... The client had lavish tastes for expensive stuff like teak wood work, italian marble, italian furniture, imported fittings, Spanish tiles,etc...It was an interesting experience to try out all high end stuff.

click here for more interesting snaps...

18 comments:

  1. Very beautiful....like you said very hi end stuff. I love the architecture..courtyard garden..

    Whats with the grey exterior..one side wall. Was that done for a purpose?

    only one thing that probably is not an architecural issue..I dont like the furniture..esp round bed...would lead to a waste of space according to me..I am used to small rooms..but may be in this big house..probably it fills up some space.

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  2. Everything but the glass for the stairs is excellent.

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  3. *priyums...the grey exterior is natural stone finish (click the pics for an enlarged view)
    Actually the potographs dont do justice to the house...the scale & proportion of this house cannot be judged by small pics..u have to see it to judge it.
    The question of space wastage doesnt arise in a very large house like this.We have to choose furniture according to the scale of the house and status of the client.
    Personally the style of the Dinning furniture (which was bought in Delhi by the client himself) didnt satisfy me.But sometimes its a status symbol that the owners adore.

    *Rajesh...any reasons?

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  4. wow looks like a dream house, just for info how much did it work out? just wondering whether i can dream of a house like that :)

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  5. *smiley...Dream house?Architecturally this may not be a great work. The design and detailings are very conventional.This project is of interest to me only coz of the use of some extravagant building materials ,fittings and finishes.
    OK call me after you've earned atleast a crore rupees and then we can start realising ur expensive dream :)

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  6. Well constructed ashok, looking like a houses which comes in movies. a house in the middle of fiels wow!!

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  7. To me, Wood and glass don't go well. Too much glass turns home in to an office. But it is just a personal taste. Your work is just amazing. The curved stairs reminds me of the Magic Stair of a church in NM.

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  8. wow, simply superb, esp. kids bedroom and false ceiling. never could accept aquarium but!

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  9. *rajesh...u r partly rite. Too much use of glass or rather 'misuse' of glass can really turn a home into a commercial space.I
    But the context of this house gave me some freedom to experiment with some high-end stuff. wud not do certain things i did in this house in another context.
    If you observe carefully, Ive kept the glass handrail minimalistic and simple for the very reason u mention.
    For ur info,Glass and wood can be a great combination if you know how to balance them.

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  10. Ashok,
    Not at all debating the looks. I enjoy the glass in commercial places as you mentioned. But unframed glass has no room in my house. I am no architect and my wife has the final say anyways.

    This is the first time I have seen some one write "for ur info", I am so used to "fyi". You made me re-read the sentence to find what is different :-)

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  12. I don't know if u checked out the magic staircase Chapel
    http://www.travel-notes.org/santa_fe.html

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  13. *rajesh...thanks for the link ...but why's it called magic staircase?

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  14. ashok, now that house is not coming in my dreams too :)

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  15. Anonymous3:52 AM

    Ashok,
    The following is an excerpt from
    http://the-storygirl.livejournal.com/tag/travel
    The chapel with the magical staircase (I'm sure it has a better name, but I can't think of what it is) is just around the corner, and we walked there. I read about the stair in my history book: the nuns came to establish a girl's school in Santa Fe, but their chapel had a problem; for some reason the design hadn't taken into account that it was a girl's school run by nuns, and that the choir would be all girls--in those days, men used to reach the choir loft by use of a ladder, and there wasn't room for a conventional staircase. So the nuns put in a novena to St. Joseph. On the ninth day of the novena, a stranger carpenter appeared and began work. For six months he worked on the staircase, which has no nails, no central or side support, and makes two 360 degree turns, seemingly suspended in air. Engineers are at a loss to how it stays up, but the nuns used it safely for many years; climbing it was such a dizzyingly terrifying experience, that they commissioned another carpenter to add a railing--now, because of traffic and age, it is supported in other means. So anyway, I really wanted to see it. It's beautiful. Unfortunately, I've been camera-less for some time and so have no pictures.

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  16. *tanx for the story..very interesting!

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  17. Hey when I build a house, I am going to ask for ur advise :-)

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  18. i told u before ...i am telling u again ..i will ask for ur help when i am building a house ..and i hope it happens soon.

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