A home built on imbalance

In Pune, Sparc Design balances asymmetry, sculptural voids and monochromes

23 Oct 2025

Balance, imbalance, restraint and rebellion. A home in Pune’s Koregaon Park somehow cradles all of it together. Imagined by Sparc Design with 1,600 sq ft area in sight, its monochromatic palette defines the art of considered subtractions. Stripped of colours and embellishments, the rooms and corners still conjure a sensorial journey for the dwellers. While the lime plaster brings tactility, the veneer brings warmth and black inserts add depth. Light traces these elements across the day, animating the ever-present stillness.

Black, white and grey form the first impressions — an exercise in restraint that elevates the home’s proportion, texture and light. The family’s heart was set on a home that would hold both rhythm and tension. Sparc Design’s principal architect Suhani Lal Sanghra along with Vikram Sanghra, Partner, and the team responded with calibrated asymmetry — voids balanced by curves, solids offset by surfaces that invite touch. Balance here is found in the home’s composure and the imbalance is the varying rhythm that keeps the space alive.

The presence of absence

The idea began with subtraction. “The conversation with the family began with their requirement of an achromatic palette with an exploration of what a contrast creating balance and imbalance could mean in an interior space,” shares Suhani. What unfolded is a refusal of excess that asked every line, surface and proportion to justify its presence. “Our instinct was that the design language should oscillate between comfort and unease, clarity and ambiguity,” Suhani adds.

In the living room, the philosophy materialises as stillness. Grey lime plaster wraps the walls in a soft, matte, quiet, absorbing light. Veneer inserts with their subdued grain lend a measured warmth to the monochrome. Black metal outlines punctuate the calm and hold the space in tension. The room opens to a balcony veiled with greenery, where morning light filters through leaves, dappling the floor and softening the geometry within. The proportion, texture, and light do the speaking in this space, the absence of excess has a strong presence on the design.

Lime plaster walls by Instacrete meet Rangoli matte grey tiles, framing a bar curated with Ek Design chairs, a hanging light from Orange Tree, and styled accessories and pyrography by Altrove and PyrobyAstad; Photography by Sagar Mandal

Wrapped in lime plaster by Instacrete, the bedroom holds a sense of tactility. The bed and side tables are from Ek Design and decor pieces from Altrove layer the space with texture; Photography by Sagar Mandal

A grey area

In a home that renounces colour, touch becomes the language of emotion. Here, greys aren’t flat, they breathe through texture. The walls, finished in lime plaster, hold tactility: slightly uneven, soft to the eye, absorbing daylight in gradients. Against this, veneer panels lend a grounded warmth, their grain read as much by hand as by sight. Black accents thread through the palette, sharp and deliberate, defining edges without disturbing calm. Rather than decorate, the materials perform. The plaster blurs the light, matte finishes temper reflection; textiles, in layered greys and off-whites, create soft interludes within the architectural rhythm. The palette’s restraint amplifies its subtleties. It is a study in how materials, when stripped of colour, begin to speak in the language of touch, temperature, and grain.

From the living room, the bar appears as a quiet composition of grey floors, lime-plastered walls. And Ek Design seating layered with curated vases, candles and accents from Altrove. A hanging light from Orange Tree hangs above the bar area; Photography by Sagar Mandal

Sculpting in a void

“The biggest challenge was to create visual harmony without making the space feel uncomfortable or disorganized, and avoiding a flat or monotonous appearance without the use of colour,” shares Suhani. The curves, offsets and carefully measured voids orchestrate how the home is read and inhabited. The double-arched pelmet in the living room recurs across the joinery and furniture, a subtle rhythm that guides the eye while softening geometry. Bedrooms extend the principle: arches partially framed in black, headboards slightly askew, lighting deliberately off-centre. Even the washroom participates, its capsule-shaped niches and circular cutouts interrupting the expanse of full-body tiles, fluted glass partitions filtering light without weight.

Every void and curve holds purpose, balancing calm with tension, order with a dash of surprise. The home’s language is deliberate, in the sculpted interruptions, the achromatic palette gains dimension and the living experience finds its rhythm. In a home stripped to skin and shadow. No colour to soften the edges, no ornamentation to distract, the built void itself becomes the pulse.