This metal screen-clad, multigenerational family home in Bengaluru, Karnataka, offers airy, functional and contemporary accomodation for an illustrator, their family unit and parents. JP House comprises two interconnected apartments; the uppermost hosts the client's unit, while the lower space is reserved for the grandparents. Designed by locally based architecture studio Kumar La Noce, the new-build house balances family warmth and a clean, almost industrial aesthetic infused with a minimalist architecture feel inside.
Kumar La Noce, headed by Bhavana Kumar and Nicola La Noce, crafted a three-storey building to best cater to the extended family’s needs. The modern structure is unified by a light blue perforated ‘veil’ on the street side – a delicate and playful metal screen. Yet this element is not simply an aesthetic gesture. Its permeable nature helps regulate the heat, air and sunlight that flows into the interior, ensuring comfortable conditions for the residents.
Stepping indoors, a clean interior exudes confidence, in an overall hardwearing, utilitarian atmosphere. The material palette is composed of white walls, polished cement and a handful of carefully chosen, bespoke wooden details. A green painted master staircase matches the external skin tone and provides a pop of colour, alongside strategic, bright furniture pieces.
Inside and outside merge behind the metal façade through open-air yet protected balconies that run along the front, which also allow for close appreciation of this key architectural feature. ‘The perforated metal façade is envisioned as a “filigree”; it incorporates simple but sophisticated detailing to retain lightness, while using readily available metal sections,’ the architects explain. ‘The custom screen system was realised through a close collaboration with a fabricator, who has a passion for detail in metal working. An exercise in balancing performance with minimal, essential and rugged detailing, craft plays a role here as much as engineering.’
Balancing Bengaluru’s hot climate, neighbours’ views and a tight urban site, JP House’s design is simple, yet effective, offering spatial luxury through smart architecture and relatively inexpensive materials.
INFORMATION
-
The best design-led cocktail shakersIf you like your drinks shaken not stirred, these are the best cocktail shakers to take your mixology skills to the next level
-
Tech Editor, Jonathan Bell, selects six new and notable Bluetooth speaker designs, big, small and illuminatingThese six wireless speakers signal new creative partnerships and innovative tech approaches in a variety of scales and styles
-
As London’s V&A spotlights Mughal-era design, Santi Jewels tells of its enduring relevance‘The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence’ is about to open at London’s V&A. Here, Mughal jewellery expert and Santi Jewels founder Krishna Choudhary tells us of the influence the dynasty holds today
-
Remembering Christopher Charles Benninger (1942-2024)Architect Christopher Charles Benninger has died in Pune, India, at the age of 82; we honour and reflect on his passing
-
A new exhibition marks Chandigarh’s modernist legacy‘Celebrating the Capitol’, an exhibition of photographic work by architect Noor Dasmesh Singh, opens just in time for the famed modernist Indian city’s anniversary
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practicesIn the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
-
Playball Studio's architecture balances the organic and the technicalPlayball Studio, a young Indo-Spanish design practice, features in the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024
-
Peek behind the foliage at The Plumeria, a south Indian home by the waterThe Plumeria by Silpi Architects is an India home in Kerala, the country's south, blending geometric forms and the region's tropical foliage and waters
-
Step inside Le Harlequin, an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartmentLe Harlequin by Design Hex is an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartment in the bustling Indian city's Lower Parel neighbourhood
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneerBack in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
-
A Hyderabad apartment blends soft minimalism and ‘tangible luxury’A Hyderabad apartment by Studio Design Inc wows with its balanced design that brings together soft minimalism and tangible luxury
