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    FADD Studio models Bangalore duplex apartment on caterpillar curvatures

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    Indian practice FADD Studio has fused two separate apartments inside a high-rise development in Bangalore to create a multigenerational family home.

    The neighbouring four-bedroom apartments, stacked one on top of the other in the SNN Clermont residential tower, were transformed into a six-bedroom duplex for a cosmopolitan couple, their parents and two young children.
    FADD Studio has fused two apartments in Bangalore’s SNN Clermont towerFADD Studio’s interventions were driven by the owners’ desire for something new and unique.
    “Our clients wanted this home to be contemporary and free of the fuss of their previous home, which was more old-fashioned with traditional elements from the previous generation,” the studio told Dezeen.
    “They didn’t want a run-of-the-mill place that looked like any other home with straight lines and contemporary anonymity. They wanted character and they were open to exploring the language of curves and most certainly wanted something out of the box.”

    A sweeping staircase now connects the two flatsThe practice gave careful thought to how best to open up and link the two apartments before deciding on two connection points – a staircase near the entrance on the lower level and a double-height section in the adjacent living area for visual interest and ease of communication between family members.
    Knowing the clients wanted to avoid straight lines, FADD Studio carefully considered the form of these linking elements.
    “We began our usual process of looking to nature for inspiration, from shell exoskeletons to caterpillar curvatures, from topographical maps of different landscapes to fish scales and from sand dunes to waves,” the practice said.
    A “zebra border” on the floor helps to define different zonesThis research formed the basis for the curving statement staircase that sweeps into the living area.
    “It has a sculptural feel with the addition of multiple curves, carved into each riser’s deep red marble,” the studio said.
    The narrow double-height section in the living room is framed by an arched cutout in the ceiling, enveloped in white micro-cement with a soft sheen finish.
    A small double-height space was carved out in the living roomLinking the two levels, the double-height back wall is fluted in an irregular pattern, mimicking the soft ripples and waves that can be found across the ceiling in the neighbouring entrance hall.
    “It hides all the conducting and allows a smooth transition between the different ceiling heights within the apartment,” FADD Studio said.

    The Act of Quad designs multi-generational Mumbai apartment with its own temple

    The firm’s approach to the flooring was similarly inventive. In the main living space, a “zebra border” of black-and-white stones swoops and crisscrosses in seemingly abstract patterns across the floor, helping to bring definition to the different zones.
    The spaces in between are filled by a selection of heavily-veined peach-pink marbles.
    “We created an inlay pattern much like repeating fish scales or groups of overlapping wild mushrooms but more abstract,” said FADD Studio.
    The upstairs living room is organised around a circular slab of marble flooringIn the upstairs living room, the furniture is grouped around a central circle of linear-veined marble surrounded, which is inlaid into the floor and surrounded by another black-and-white border.
    “The flooring is dramatic, something bold and thoughtful, contributing to the strong visual and spatial language of the space,” the studio said.
    “The ceilings and floor defy the mundane and give us and the apartment’s inhabitants pure joy to see the lines and curves continue infinitely.”
    A black-and-white border cuts across the floorThe peach, black and white of the floor ties into the colour scheme throughout the apartment.
    “This colour palette is unusual for an Indian home,” FADD Studio said. “These colours, along with the nature-inspired curvatures and rounded forms resulted in a minimal-futuristic vibe.”
    With so many ideas at work within the space itself, the furniture has taken on a supporting role.
    The duplex now has six bedroomsThe colour palette was chosen to tie in with the walls so that the sculptural shapes and curving forms become the focal point, while boucle and textural cotton bring interest in terms of tactility.
    Another Indian studio known for its unconventional apartment interiors is The Act of Quad, which has recently completed a home with cobalt-blue accents in Thane and a Mumbai apartment with its own temple.
    The photography is by Gokul Rao Kadam.

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      Office Alex Nicholls creates multi-generational Melbourne apartment with its own spa

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      Architecture studio Office Alex Nicholls has fused two penthouse apartments in Melbourne into one large flexible home, converting their basement parking spots into a private spa and pool.

      Adaptability was key to the home in Melbourne’s Elsternwick suburb, which needed to provide enough space for a multi-generational family as well as accommodating visiting relatives in guest rooms that double up as studies.
      Office Alex Nicholls fused two apartments to create Elsternwick Penthouse”Spaces were designed to adapt to a multitude of uses, with flexible working and living spaces as well as areas that could expand for large groups or contract to provide intimate settings,” the studio’s founder Alex Nicholls told Dezeen.
      Office Alex Nicholls was brought on board while the apartment block was still under construction and was able to make significant changes to suit his clients’ needs – improving the layout, adding skylights and up-speccing on key details like the windows.
      Timber staircases lead to the roof garden”The design intent was to create variety and different spatial experiences across a very expansive and potentially monotonous floorplan,” Nicholls said.

      “I wanted to create a light yet grounded and natural-feeling space that was contrasted with some stronger formal elements such as sculptural skylights and coloured functional volumes.”
      A “library spine” runs through the apartment to provide storageTo navigate this vast apartment, Nicholls devised a central “library spine” – a corridor running the entire length of the apartment that houses the family’s collection of books, art and artefacts while creating an opportunity out of what could have been a dark and monotonous space.
      “The idea for the library spine was born from a storage requirement of the clients,” the architect said. “However, it became a key architectural intervention.”
      “From a practical standpoint, it allowed everything to be easily accessible and displayed but it also helps to draw people through the apartment and celebrate the two staircases to the roof garden at either end.”
      Oculus skylights funnel sunlight into the interiorTo provide vital light to the heart of the apartment and enhance the two main living spaces, Nicholls designed a series of circular and semi-circular oculus skylights, which reference the clients’ love of Elsternwick’s art deco architecture.
      “They create a sense of movement and symmetry in the composition of otherwise rectilinear volumes,” he explained.

      Frederick Tang Architecture transforms New York loft into light-filled wellness studio

      The apartment has three kitchens, partly to meet the family’s religious requirements and partly to allow the different generations who are sharing the apartment to enjoy their own independence.
      Described by Nicholls as a series of “magic boxes”, each monolithic kitchen is defined by one vivid colour. This helps to delineate spaces and provides a counterpoint to the otherwise warm and natural material palette, which includes Blackbutt timber and Gosford sandstone.
      The apartment has three colourful kitchen units”The kitchens were designed to be largely concealed within these coloured volumes to give each one more spatial presence while ensuring the apartment did not feel too kitchen- and appliance-heavy as a result of the clients’ complex requirements,” Nicholls said.
      In the basement, Nicholls turned the penthouses’ lift-accessed parking spots into a private 100-square-metre wellness space that features a fitness pool, sauna, kitchenette, changing rooms and a flexible rehabilitation area.
      Nicholls also converted the apartments’ parking spots into a private spaTo make up for the lack of natural light in this subterranean space, Nicholls deployed atmospheric indirect lighting and a warm colour palette.
      “Lighting the space via a datum of timber niches helped give the spa a restorative atmosphere, enhanced by the use of natural materials such as sandstone, timber, terracotta and lime render,” he explained.
      The spa is home to a timber saunaElsternwick is a thriving suburb in the southeast of Melbourne, brimming with buzzy shops, restaurants and bars.
      Among them is the Hunter & Co Deli, whose interiors were informed by the cold cuts on offer, and the minimal Penta cafe with its monolithic concrete counter.
      The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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      Ten multi-generational homes that organise space in interesting ways

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      A Mumbai apartment with its own temple and a Tokyo home for three generations and eight cats feature in this lookbook highlighting ten intergenerational households that showcase how interiors can balance privacy and community.

      Multi-generational living, in which several generations of a family cohabit under one roof, is already common practice in many parts of Asia, the Middle East, southern Europe and Africa.
      But with the growing price of housing, as well as elder and childcare, these kinds of communal living arrangements are now becoming increasingly popular around the world.
      This has prompted architects and designers to devise clever ways to divide up interiors, balancing the need for both private and communal spaces by using everything from staircases to moving partitions and planted terraces.
      Many also integrate accessible design features for their elderly inhabitants, such as wheelchair ramps and elevators.

      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing decorative ceramics, bathrooms with statement tiles and dining areas anchored by sculptural pendant lights.
      Photo is by Peter Bennetts StudioCharles House, Australia, by Austin Maynard Architects
      Pocket sliding partitions connect the rooms in this home so that its interiors can grow with the owner’s children and ultimately also accommodate their grandparents.
      Complete with a wheelchair-accessible garden, the building is one of a growing number of multi-generational houses being designed in answer to Melbourne’s housing crisis.
      “A diverse family home is often a healthy family home,” said Australian studio Austin Maynard Architects. “However, multigenerational homes also reflect the nature of our economy.”
      Find out more about Charles House ›
      Photo is by Ossip van DuivenbodeThree-Generation House, Netherlands, by BETA
      The Three-Generation House in Amsterdam was designed to resemble a “mini apartment building”, housing a young family on the lower floors and the grandparents on the top floor, which can be accessed via a private lift.
      A bright yellow staircase runs through the centre of the plan, helping to divide the open-plan interior while effectively connecting all the different levels of the home into a cohesive whole.
      Find out more about Three-Generation House ›
      Photo is by Katherine LuVikki’s Place, Australia, by Curious Practice
      Instead of doors, slim wooden blinds and raised plywood platforms help to demarcate the bedrooms in this Australian home, designed to accommodate the owner as well as her grown-up son and his family, who often come to stay for extended periods of time.
      “The play with the levels enables the architecture to act as furniture, which accommodates more or fewer guests for different occasions,” architect Warren Haasnoot of local studio Curious Practice told Dezeen.
      “Manoeuvring between spaces and levels invokes a sense that one is navigating between levels of terrain rather than moving room to room or outside to inside.”
      Find out more about Vikki’s Place ›
      Photo is by Albert Lim K SCornwall Gardens, Singapore, by Chang Architects
      Planted terraces are organised around a central pool in this family home in Singapore, providing each of the six bedrooms with natural vistas and a sense of privacy despite the busy floorplan.
      Local studio Chang Architects conceived the project as a “tropical paradise,” complete with a Koi carp pond and a waterfall to encourage the owner’s children to raise their families here once they’ve grown up.
      Find out more about Cornwall Gardens ›
      Photo is by Michael MoranChoy House, USA, by O’Neill Rose Architects
      Two brothers, their families and their mother share this residence in Flushing, Queens, which New York studio O’Neill Rose Architects describes as “three homes under one roof”.
      Designed to fuse American and Chinese ways of living in a nod to the client’s mixed heritage, the house effectively provides two separate homes for the two siblings, connected by a communal lower level that is also home to their mother and can be accessed via stairs hidden behind semi-transparent screens.
      Find out more about Choy House ›
      Photo is courtesy of NendoStairway House, Japan, by Nendo
      Three generations of the same family share this three-storey home in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, with the more accessible ground floor given over to the grandparents and their eight pet cats.
      Japanese studio Nendo bisected the floorplan with a huge fake staircase, which provides a visual connection between the different levels while accommodating a bathroom, a playroom for the cats and a plethora of potted plants.
      Find out more about Stairway House ›
      Photo is by Javier Callejas SevillaResidence 1065, India, by Charged Voids
      Indian studio Charged Voids designed this house in Chandigarh to combine the communal focus of “Eastern spatial planning” with the “Western aesthetics” of Le Corbusier.
      Housing a family of six – including a couple, their parents and their children – the residence features private areas on the second floor and communal areas on the ground floor, which can be conjoined or separated using collapsible partitions.
      Find out more about Residence 1065 ›
      Photo is by Yao LiSong House, China, by AZL Architects
      A wheelchair ramp wraps its way around this house in the rural village of Nansong, which is inhabited by a couple in their 50s alongside three older family members, as well as occasionally their children and grandchildren.
      Like a traditional Chinese farmhouse, the building is organised around a central courtyard, with glazed openings providing views across the plan to create a sense of community and connection.
      Find out more about Song House ›
      Photo is by Matt GibsonWellington Street Mixed Use, Australia, by Matt Gibson
      Set on a narrow infill site in Melbourne, this home is constructed from irregularly stacked boxes that can be segmented to cater to different generations of the same family.
      A central atrium connects the different levels to the kitchen on the ground floor, while also functioning as a lightwell and a cooling stack for ventilation.
      Find out more about Wellington Street Mixed Use ›
      Photo is by Ishita SitwalaMumbai apartment, India, by The Act of Quad
      Indian practice The Act of Quad designed the “minimal but playful” interior of this three-generational apartment in Mumbai to consolidate the pared-back aesthetic of the owner, who is an engineer, with the more irreverent style of his cartoonist father.
      Intricate woodwork pieces were brought over from the family’s former home and refurbished to create a sense of tradition and continuity, while a small temple was tucked away behind folding doors with amber glass portholes.
      Find out more about Mumbai apartment ›
      This is the latest in our series of lookbooks providing curated visual inspiration from Dezeen’s image archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing decorative ceramics, bathrooms with statement tiles and dining areas anchored by sculptural pendant lights.

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      Vikki's Place by Curious Practice is a family home for three generations

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      Split-level flooring and slim wooden blinds separate the living spaces of this multi-generational home in the Australian city of Newcastle, New South Wales. The eponymous owner of Vikki’s Place needed a home that could accommodate herself and her grown-up son, who comes to stay for long periods of time with his own family of four. […] More

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      Steel and concrete steps cut through facade of Stairway House by Nendo

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      A huge faux staircase interrupts the floor plan of this house in Tokyo, which design studio Nendo has created for three generations of the same family. Stairway House is situated in a quiet residential pocket of Shinjuku, a ward of Tokyo known for its neon-lit buildings, bustling streets and vibrant nightlife scene. The three-storey home […] More