A mixed bag of surprises and excitement—Isprava’s newly launched property designed by Nishita Kamdar wraps the Goa house with elements of nature

Not very often do we come across a house that does not overpower its own elements, and radiates calm to the user in the simplest ways possible. And like they say “if the mother is happy, the child is also born happy”, so was the case for Nishita Kamdar while designing this house. As a result, the house radiates good spirit.

Located in Assagao, Goa, the villa is designed for a family of four by the principal architect of Studio Nishita Kamdar and her team.

Hitting the brief

Isprava being a unique brand owning luxury properties in Goa, have their own way of channelling communication and creativity. In this case, the designer Nishita Kamdar and her team never met the clients in person, but only knew them through their brief. The clients from Mumbai own a successful hair salon chain and had a very simple brief—they wanted a home away from home, an oasis where they can reconnect, reconfigure and relax. Since the brief was basic yet crisp, the process became exciting since there was a lot to learn and experiment with—interior styles, brands and their philosophies, landscaping and everything in between.

Falling in love

Since this project was Studio Nishita Kamdar’s first ever project in Goa, there was this spirit of exploration that ran along the design process—from the styling in this project to collecting interesting objects that ignite curiosity, to knick knacks that fill up the space.

From getting big elements like tall ceilings, beautiful arched porches, clear french windows and a lovely pool, to creating details and elements of surprise, it was like falling in love.

Tour the home

The villa gives out the dominant feature of Goan-Portuguese architectural landscape in the very first glimpse. You start to imagine it further by the first look—cute little windows, porches, verandahs, little water bodies, basically all those lovely things that allow one to pause and relax for a while. Entering the white villa you find yourself in a vestibule that leads to the living room overlooking the verandah, lawn space and swimming pool. The living room has a splendid IPS and stone inlay flooring towards a corner which almost lights up with the first ray of sunlight. Complementing the sun are quirky decals of trees and birds scattered on the walls, greeting you in surprise. Going up on the first floor are 3 private bedrooms and a cosy intimate terrace. 

A theme and an assortment of materials

As the site was in Goa, what better inspiration than the topography of the itself. The colours and elements derived from nature instantly became the focus of the mood and vision boards and things soon started revolving around them. The derivations were in the lines of tropical-themed colour schemes, the considerations to utilise abundant sunlight and the strong belief of sourcing natural and local materials. Because the designer wanted the materials to coexist and not dominate each other, the home displays shades of blue, green and brown imbibed in reclaimed wood, rattan, planters and leather-finished Shahabad stone. Most of the furniture used is slightly larger than the usual sizes to give more room for comfort. Mellowing down the drama of sunlight a little, soft sheers and linens are used to achieve soft hazes.

Up for a challenge

Like many other things in recent years, this house too is a ‘pandemic-baby’. The completion took around a year since the process became extremely challenging to execute from Mumbai.

“The process for a holiday home involves creating a mood board first and almost building a dream-like storyline for the client to fall in love with, choosing materials, furniture, lights, colours that are in sync with the ethos of the space. We followed an exhaustive process of the above to arrive at curating the right kind of space for our clients”, says principal designer, Nishita Kamdar.

The biggest challenge was in fact the biggest boon – the designers never met the client. That being said, the team, at times, did find it easy to get swayed away with their own designs.

An idea worth using

Inspiration, sometimes is right in front of us and we don’t see it. In the case of this house, the designer derived the vision board inspiration right from the surroundings in front of the site. By doing so, the property has stayed in sync with its context and also has achieved a way to use locally sourced materials. Using the topography to the house’s advantage is beneficial in many ways and is definitely a takeaway.

Scroll down to see more glimpses of this project

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