A curation of our design ideas and inspirations for houses in Goa, contemporary art and architecture.
with a curation of our design ideas and inspiration for houses in Goa, contemporary art and architecture.
What does it mean to incorporate nature within our built-in environment? What does it mean to reconnect architecture with nature? What are the benefits and how does it impact our lives?
Tune in today to hear Founder and Principal Architect, Anjali Mangalgiri at Grounded, an award-winning architecture and development firm based in India and Singapore talk about the power of reconnecting architecture and nature.
A simple centerpiece for a coffee table in my home with plants growing in bottles.
The dragonfly is crafted from dry palm leaves, purchased from a street vendor in Vietnam. It remains one of my most treasured possessions.
Tip 1. Bring nature into your home. Going to a florist is not a priority item at this point, so my tip is to go cut some green leaves and branches growing near your home and create your own arrangements at home or grow them in bottles with water. Use some of the beautiful wine bottles or glass jars that you may have at your disposal. You can add drama by placing the colored bottles on window ledges to get the light to shine through them!
See Athena Calderone's video on Foraging.
Go here for a list of plants that can easily grow in bottles with cuttings.
Tip 2: Institute a winding down ritual. Start an evening ritual of burning simple incense or a scented candle after sunset. This will be a signal for the family to wind down, take a breath, tune out work and social media and focus on leisure. Keep the lights low in the evening, try to stay away from jarring bright ceiling or wall lights. Instead rely on lamps to light up your living and sleeping spaces. Adjust the brightness of a lamp by simply covering your lamps with a scarf, your zero cost dimmer!
Tip 3: Bust out the fancy! Make this a time for celebration with your immediate loved ones. Set the dinner table, add a floral (or plant) arrangement, add a candle and bring out the fancy dinnerware. This is really a time to make everyday special and to count on our blessings each and everyday!
A Guide to Local Goan Food with a list of offbeat Goan restaurants, unique Goan food stories, extensive Goan food histories and food journals as well as Goan food through art and travel. Read about all things Goan cuisine here, right from mastery of the famous Bebinca Cake to a food pilgrimage by Chef Thomas Zacharias through Goa.
Highlighting this beauty today…
We all seem to know of Kelly Wearstler, thanks to her Interior Design Masterclass. She is a heavyweight in the interior design world. I love this particular series, it fits perfectly with my aesthetic of highlighting natural materials in interiors. Beautifully crafted, raw with the grains in wood taking center stage. This one is makes wonderful eye-candy!
For Singapore Design Week, I joined a group of design lovers to tour design significant buildings in Singapore.
I was bowled over when I walked into 145 Neil Road, a traditional Peranakan shophouse that has been refurbished into a contemporary sequence of spaces dotted with traditional elements, rustic finishes, exposed concrete, large sliding doors with clear glass and light-filled courtyards. Great inspiration for our forthcoming projects!
Source for images: Spoonful of Home Design
Simply some eye-candy... Here is a celebrity home owned by Singer-Actress Cher that is filled with inspirations and goodies from India !
Images courtesy of Architecturaldigest.
I love Manish Arora. I find him to be one of the most innovative trend-setter global-Indian designers today. He exhibits such bravery with his bursts of colors and wild bold prints. I like that he does not hold back and strays far beyond any ‘safe-zone’.
He exhibited the same bravado when he revamped his apartment in Paris and we love the result. He actually got a graffiti artist to spray paint his entrance ! And that was just the beginning. The loud pops of color, pexiglass furniture and his toy collections makes the apartment very original, uber-chic and avant-garde. (even the duct-tape on his boxes is neon orange !!) J’aime !
Images via article in NYTimes and Ozone Design Lifestyle.
The post would be incomplete without the wonderful-quirky-bashful-full of color video ‘Holi Holy’ by Manish Arora. The video celebrates the first time when the widows in Benaras played Holi (last year).
I am not the type to be much into celebrity homes... but this one caught my eye primarily because its theme is so similar to our own at NIVIM Goa. The house is designed to connect the indoors with the outdoors and provide a peaceful space to escape, inspire and celebrate with family and friends.
Courtney Cox's home was the cover feature in Elle Decor, US Edition, July/ August 2011. All photo are courtesy of Elle Decor Online. See link.
The house is located in Malibu. One of the architects for the house says that 'Malibu is all about being outdoors'. Exactly the same in Goa...
The article talks about how the house looks out over the deck and pool and beyond. The architects designed the spaces with a sense of openness with glass walls that flood the rooms with light. The glass doors, once opened, makes one feel like they are completely outside.
The result is a space that is chic and unquestionably luxurious, yet earthy, cozy and unpretentious... Its interiors were kept neutral and bare that keeps the focus on the outdoors.
Sounds familiar doesn't it !! Read about our efforts to design NIVIM to seamlessly connect the indoors with outdoors. See link.
It is not a surprise that the concepts in the house above and our efforts are so similar. In my mind, there is a distinct vocabulary for building in the country. It stems from the underlying reason for people to choose to live in the country, clearly to 'reconnect with nature'. And with that concept in mind, the architecture has to be as much about the outdoors as indoor, if not more. We are loving our journey to give NIVIM its special character built around its site and surroundings. The house as a result is shaping up to be quite fabulous and heart warming. I promise updated pictures soon.
Living area adjacent to the kitchen
Sit-out with large glass walls
Master bedroom that becomes a part of its deck and views beyond
Outdoor bar and galley kitchen
Earthy bathrooms
The entrance alcove dictates the the earthy and natural style of the house
The pool and deck looking over to the sea
Outdoor dining
Undeniably the most precious space in the house, a pavilion set into the scenery with seating around a fireplace. As per the article, Courtney Cox has her coffee here everyday...I can see why !
