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FADD Studio: Designer of the week

JUN 20, 2016 | By Nupur Ashok Sarvaiya
Founded in 2012, FADD Studio in Bengaluru has been a brainchild of Dhaval Shellugar and Farah Ahmed, who have been famed for their vast repertoire ranging from residences to offices and retail spaces to hospitality. The enterprising architect Farah Ahmed shares their stimulus behind their latest show apartment and lobby.
Their design philosophy
For Dhaval and Farah the world of design is in a constant state of flux, which propels them to reinterpret old trends in fresh ways. “We strongly believe that we have to create something new in every project to not just surprise our clients but also surprise ourselves by experimenting with materials and colours,” adds Farah. “ Our philosophy is not to stagnate, which is why you’ll notice in our projects there’s never a signature element – it is never just modern or minimalistic, it is never just classical. We never turn a client who will say they want something ‘mid-century modern’, we will instead take that concept and give them something novel, laying inspiration from the elements of that brief.”
Their most recent project
Recently, the duo designed an exquisite show apartment and lobby as a part of a three-project submission. Describing the inspiration behind it, Farah avers, “We commenced with the lobby of the apartment that was nothing but a slab with a 33 ft high ceiling. The budget was not very high, however, the impact that we had to create was like a super high budget project. We thought of three different concepts and zeroed down to the one that was inspired by the grid of vertical and horizontal black lines of De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian, where we could choose where we to use expensive materials and where we could choose inexpensive materials. It was logically for us to give a very luxurious look by not going overboard the budget, bringing an industrial touch while subtly illuminating the ceiling.”
The apartment was close to Dhaval and Farah’s hearts because the clients were equally very creative, giving them adequate freedom. “Interestingly, the location of the apartment was also in vicinity with residents that are well-travelled, well-heeled in their mid 30s. Their previous condos were warm and earthy so these had to be very unusual for a person who could understand international design. We laid our inspiration from geometric patterns and colours, where we paired gothic elements with geometric wallpapers.”
A trendy and eclectic canvas, the space is a rendezvous of shabby chic with solid shades. “The colour palette was very saturated, we used blacks and beiges in the background and that were subdued with dark blues and dark reds. For instance, in the master bedroom dark scarlet is coupled with beige and black, in the guest room dark blue is added with beige. We experimented the most in the kids room – we played with the closets, while everything else is in the shell of black and white,” she adds.
Website: www.faddstudio.com
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