One with earth: A Chennai home reveals greens and grandiose concocted by Farah Ahmed and Dhaval Shellugar of FADD Studio

Volume is a beautiful thing. On our planet and inside our living boundaries, a vast volume can have many connotations. It could be astonishing, daunting, contemplative or pacifying too. Playing with endless yet embracing spatiality of a sweeping 10,000 sq ft home in Chennai are FADD Studio’s Farah Ahmed Mathias and Dhaval Shellugar. Building visual blocks of poetry and practicality out of high ceilings and wide expanses, the duo creates a modern-tropical anchorage dubbed ‘GAIA’ for a young couple and two-year old daughter.

“What began as a 2,000 sq ft outhouse with a focus on cooking, dining and entertaining, took a wild turn, very quickly during COVID, and became a 10,000 sq ft main home within a gated community,” explain Farah and Dhaval. Despite a seismic size change of the area, the brief remained unchanged. “The family was keen on having a tropical minimal home with a lush courtyard and a large focus on gastronomy.” A first level was soon added to the pre-existing outhouse, carving four bedrooms, three bars, a gym, a workspace, a garden with a pool, a pizza-oven installed area, and a deck along with other entertainment rooms.

With recurring caresses of greens against a grounded canvas of wood and granite, the home materialises as a fascinating interlude between sounds and silence. Echoing the quietude of indoors, while swaying on the brisky jingles of the outdoors. With architecture by D+Y Architecture, plateaued on the ECR (East Coast Road) belt of the city once known as Madras, the home gently opens up as a labyrinth, with rising, overgrown calatheas plant greeting you first at the entry gate, and instantly leading to a green arcade-like passage that culminates into a checkered wooden main door. 

An eye for detail and drama

As soon as the grandiose of the interiors begins to convince you of its elevated modern character, the courtyard reveals itself blanketed with teeming greenery and a statuesque, traditional Nandi figurine resting in the heart of it all, crowned with a slender and sinuous frangipani tree. Volumes are indeed a thing of beauty here, in every shape and form.

Sauntering further in, the living room assumes the spotlight, visually and functionally trickling right into an open kitchen, a wine cellar and bar! Deviating wittily from any overwhelming design instances, FADD has brought in a liberal assembly of furniture — sleek, sharp, sculpturesque, and sourced locally. The spectrum of colours here is an effortless oscillation between light and dark, draped in shades of polished wood, light browns and matte blacks.

Yet another expression of subtle drama in the living room is the buoyant belt light by Flos drooping from above and overlapping against the charred-wood walls and fluted marble bar.

In the entertainment room, which spills on to the pool, a bookshelf crafted with stone just begins to hum the earthy mood of the house, when a second bar made with pink bricks splashes enough vigour to it.  Glimpses of the courtyard continue to appear and reappear as one ascends to the upper level, where a jacuzzi with a glass bottom awaits, too! Hefty stone bolsters clad the courtyard wall, which surprisingly becomes an imposing background for the centrally-placed bed in the primary bedroom only separated by a clear-glass screen.

“The primary washroom is noteworthy as it breaks away from the straight geometry of the home. The shower and WC pickets are separated by a bathtub. The whole bathroom is open, earthy and lush,” tell Farah and Dhaval.

Rooted and thriving

To measure or calculate the expansive scapes of this Chennai home, just walking around and absorbing the sights isn’t enough. The designers have astutely and thoughtfully embellished the open spaces and rooms with gripping design interventions that pull in your attention even long after you’ve passed it by — be it the deck, pool or the koi pond. As the duo exclaim, “Outdoor spaces truly complete a home like nothing else can.”

The home is not just its family’s design-forward dwelling. It also, as you tread through from one end to the other, is a sanctum of conscious choices. With locally procured and made in India objects of interest, even the plant species and building materials are sourced from only 3 to 4 kms from the place, thanks to the landscape artist Varna of VSLA, who decidedly favoured local species with similar climate conditions as opposed to the exotic elements.

The delicacy of hardware

Framed with hardware by Netherlands-based Fritz Jurgen, the main door channels its protagonist-esque tenor, parallel to the movement of sun and its balmy rays through the day. Almost like the tensile temper of hardware, the anthemic plaid-patterned shadows dance on the floors and walls, taking on an unmistakable role in league with the textures and curious elements seen across the home.

“The stone texture on the wall, the slatted wooden texture of the ceiling, the flat black metal texture of the staircase, the concrete finish floor texture are the perfect formula to enhance the magic that is brought in by nature,” surmise the duo.

Also read: FADD Studio expertly pair midcentury modern details with handcrafted pieces to furnish this palatial residence