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Project Name: Villa Vastu

Location: Ahmedabad, India

Interior Designer: Blocher Partners, Stuttgart

Architect: Blocher Partners, Stuttgart

How do you build something truly modern in India? This villa gives an answer: Exposed concrete combines straightforwardness and sophisticated air-conditioning technology with the ancient principles of Vastu. Footsteps scurry across the cool marble floor, past a group of comfortable chairs and the red Afghan carpet. Despite its size – 4×5 meters – the carpet seems almost modest in this giant hall, with its six-meter-high ceilings; here, the residential wing, guest lounge and private area meet, harmoniously linking the private and public space in this 28-room villa.

Both the ground floor and first floor have a continuous veranda, protected behind a curtain of teak slats, whose elements decorate the concrete core like a light fabric cover. These movable slats lend rhythm and structure to the house: a modern interpretation of classical ornamentation. The doubled veranda, for its part, corresponds with an internal passageway that leads from the home cinema on the northern end straight into the homeowner’s office. Between these poles are apartments for guests and the grandparents. The children’s bedrooms are on the first floor; each has its own dressing room and bath.

On the far southern end, sheltered under a massive concrete frame, is the master bedroom. From here, the view opens out over the cooling waters of the pool and the trees of the park, ultimately losing itself in the horizon. An element that is essential to the sense of wellbeing is the interplay of materials that can either cool or warm the space: Uplights emphasize the surface of hand-hewn sandstone from Rajasthan, whose golden tone sparkles in the cool marble flooring. The combination of concrete, teak and Jura marble lends elegance and warmth to the interior.