HOUSES UNLIKE ANY YOU’VE SEEN

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

 I don’t know if it’s another COVID fallout or if it’s something that evolved slowly and I only just happened to notice it recently but there seems to be an explosion of shows on homes of celebrities.

Sort of like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous of the 1980s, they’re everywhere you look.

Television shows in which actors take viewers on a tour of other actors’ homes (Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai with host Vinay Pathak) or television commercials in which actors invite viewers into their homes to show off walls covered in Asian Paints (and of course, living edge furniture sourced from Capri).

There’s the somewhat unfortunately named Home Invasion, an Indian show along similar lines, that promotes furniture from a popular brand and then there’s the impossibly chirpy host of a show promoting Zomato who brings takeout to star homes – viewers get to see the stars enjoy their favourite dishes at home. There’s also something called Brut Sauce. I happened to click on one that showed Shashi Tharoor’s home (filled with books!) and now alerts for other people’s homes keep popping up.

It’s all super voyeuristic, but I have to admit, there’s something riveting about peeking into the homes of people we only get to see on screens. Reactions can swing from, “Ooooh, I love that lamp!” to “Eww, how garish!”

Sometimes, after you’ve binge-watched a few segments one after another, you know the same designer is behind many of the interiors. They are different from homes of ordinary folk, but alike in a curiously cookie-cutter way.

Contemporary House India also takes us into the homes of the rich and famous, but homes like you’ve never seen, each one a one-of-a-kind. That’s because these homes are designed by some of India’s biggest names in architecture. By people who are not afraid to take chances and who are blessed with clients who obviously gave them a free hand. For it’s hard to imagine someone giving the nod to something that looks like a shipping container plunked on top of a rubble of bricks unless they had unflinching faith in the finished structure meeting their needs.

Rob Gregory interviewed many leading architects for the book and shares their vision.

BV Doshi: “A house is not just a house, it is a home. It is a community. It is a living entity – and we celebrate this.” Doshi goes on to add that a house should age with its occupants.

Arjun Malik: “The West still drives design direction, and when looking to South East Asia and India, this sometimes brings a stereotypical patronizing attitude that Indian architecture favours beauty, ornamentation and celebration.”

Dispelling that notion from the get-go, Gregory presents a whole slate of homes that stand out. Literally so.

Take Jenga House in New Delhi. It looks exactly like you might imagine a house being called Jenga would, with blocks that interlock.

Or Kaleka Residence and Studios in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which from the outside, looks like a multi-story carpark  – all industrial walls and no windows.

Brick House in Delhi presents a, you guessed it, brick facade with wooden blinds.

Villa in the Palms in Goa looks like a pile of cartons tumbled down a slope.

In Lagoon Residence in Alibag, Maharashtra, the part of the house leading to the pool tilts at a serious angle.

The caption describes it as displaying “discrete elements of modern structural playfulness”.

Be that as it may, all of these studiously unembellished structures are deceptive because they open into large, airy spaces filled with beauty and light. Several of them, by different architects, incorporate living trees into the structures, creating aangans or courtyards around mango or champa trees.

House of Secret Gardens also lives up to its name, giving nothing away of the lush and imaginative green “rooms” within.

I think of the young woman who recently shared her excitement over moving into their newly-constructed home in Delhi. “It has something I always wanted – a bathtub!” she exulted. Most homes in India – even those with super lux washrooms with rainforest showerheads and river-pebble floors – don’t come with bathtubs. At least not the ones I walk into. This book is an opportunity to see how the others live, the ones with infinity pools.

It offers a fascinating peek into homes one is unlikely to see on your usual street in Delhi. Or Bangalore. Floor plans provide ways to incorporate elements into your dream home – should you be brave enough to venture into that territory!