Excerpt: Speaking Volumes by Essteam Design Services LLP, a residence inspired by Jenga, uses vertical stacking to create dynamic, interlocking volumes that balance openness and privacy. Form-finished concrete, wood, and glass enhance its minimalist aesthetic, while large openings maximize light and ventilation. Featuring cantilevered forms and terraces, the design fosters interaction across four levels.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The client, previously residing in an old city house with shared walls, yearned for the true openness of a family home that exudes airiness and is bathed in natural light. They envisioned a residence where individual spaces communicate seamlessly, allowing family members to remain connected even when in their personal areas. Their aesthetic preference leaned towards form-finished concrete, desiring a minimalist, modern home that is both unique and dynamic.
The squarish plot, approximately 440 square yards with a setback on all the sides, posed spatial challenges, necessitating vertical stacking of the living spaces across four levels. Leveraging the advantages of the corner plot with roads on the west and north sides, the house is designed to orient most spaces towards the north. This orientation allows for large, full-sized windows that bring in soft, diffused northern light throughout the day. Strategically placing the vertical circulation and bathing areas on the southern side insulates the primary living spaces—such as the living rooms, bedrooms, and dining areas—enhancing their comfort and functionality.
The concept of Vertical Stacking is derived from the wooden block game ‘Jenga’. This allows abundant light and vistas by just reorganizing and stacking them differently. Each individual volume will thus assert their presence while collectively embodying the family’s values of unity and individuality. In the process it creates lots of balconies and terraces. The use of two types of concrete textures not only imparts the necessary variations and identities to the blocks. The arrangement of the various blocks allows the rooms and the terraces to look into each other, establishing great possibilities of interaction amongst the family members across the floors. This modern house uses form-finished concrete as the primary shell, and we integrated it with wood, granite and glass to set a warm and sophisticated tone.
The design ensures that the majority of liveable spaces have three exterior walls, promoting cross-ventilation, ample daylight, and outdoor views. The volumetric composition of the house introduces dynamism, with spaces stacked and the master bedroom cantilevered approximately 4.2 meters (13′-9″ feet) over the first-floor garden. This creates a double-height volume, allowing visual connectivity from the top floor to the ground level, spanning from extreme east to west. Achieving this sense of openness within a confined plot boundary is a remarkable feat of design, where individual volumes assert their presence while collectively embodying the family’s values of unity and individuality.
Inspired by one of our previous projects featuring form-finished concrete, the client was resolute in engaging us to design their new home with a minimalist material palette that exudes modernity. Using form-finished concrete as the primary shell, we integrated wood, white marble stones and a few metals to set a warm and sophisticated tone.
Modernist detailing in the interiors ensures that the house remains inviting and visually comforting. Careful restraint in the interior design and customised artworks with a pinch of colours to the spaces enhances the elegance of simplicity.
Technologically advanced, the house features smart controls that enhance the lifestyle of the client’s family, offering unparalleled comfort and ease.
‘Speaking Volumes’ stands as a testament to our design philosophy—achieving more with less, creating spaces that are both functional and aesthetically compelling.
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