The story of a rare collaboration

In the age of technology — that thrives on likes, followers, Pinterest pins and incessant scrolling — where human interference begins and blurs is hard to tell. But through the layers of raging trends, reels and visual hoodwinks online, the duo, Vaishali Kamdar and Ravi Vazirani are an exception in the offscreen world.

Their creative decisions assume the spotlight inside a home they designed together in the southern stretch of Mumbai. The home emerges as a moment. A journey. An experience. The secret? Vaishali and Ravi’s collaboration, which they subliminally manifested through the years of their friendship, now rooted firmly in the nooks and crevices of the residence. This novel 3,500 sq ft abode ensconced on the 29th floor serves as the secondary residence of pharma-industrialists Barkha and Pranav Amin and their teenage kids.

Wrapped in the aesthetic jargon that is equally peculiar to Ravi and VK, as many endearingly call Vaishali, they define the home as understated. Yet pronounced in details. On-ground deliberations, real-time challenges and spontaneous evolutions are a few things that perhaps are key to the making of a home for all seasons, if you may?

Enveloped as a living room, dining area, study, three bedrooms including the primary, daughter’s and son’s, en-suite bathrooms and powder room, the space performs multiple roles. One moment, it seems deep in a languid conversation with the outside tableau of tetris-like towers, foggy skyline and sea views that play hide and seek. While the next second, it admires the quirks of indoors — prominent artworks, statement decor, customised furniture and the all-consuming emotion of discerning rarity…

Through a macro perspective, the residence opens up like a curious maze of details and art, an assemblage of the homeowners’ collection as well as some prominent art sourced by Vaishali and Ravi. An enigmatic universe of S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza, Jeram Patel, Jogen Chowdhury, Himmat Shah, Vivan Sundaram, Martand Khosla, amongst other artists unravel as one ambles from one room to the other.

The space was imagined by opening up the fourth bedroom, which became a playground of Ravi and Vaishali’s design ingenuities and the dwellers’ need for functionality — also staging it as a family lounge and a guest bedroom. Discreet details such as privacy blind and sliding pocket doors were added, lending an effortless transition from a study to a cosy, personal room for repose.

Exemplary of art and function co-existing within this room,a striking S.H. Raza artwork is astutely dressed as a sliding screen that cleverly camouflages the television behind. One of the other standout works from the homeowners’ personal collection is of Tracey Emin, bedecked as a neon-lit backdrop to the sculptural bar.

This home’s layout in entirety scripts a lesson in charting an exemplary visual flow, where the sight calculatedly flows corner to corner. As Ravi explains, “While both of us have a different approach to perceiving spaces, in terms of proportion and understanding of how the eye needs to flow, we are both on exactly the same page.”

Ravi shares, “I am a Vaishali Kamdar fanboy. I’ve known Vaishali for a long time and I was finally elated to be a part of her process.” To which, VK wittily quips, “I’d say, Ravi’s equal parts magician and maverick.. There’s a sense of lingering maturity and gravitas in his aesthetics, which is what draws me to his work.”

The duo confesses and sums up, “There is an underlying sense of confidence in the other person and that is the very essence of collaboration, to which this home stands testimony!”

Read now: Vaishali Kamdar talks about her design for FCML’s Pune store, which takes the concept of an experience centre to another level