ROLE OF SAMPLE FLAT.....!

These days almost all Developers who build Apartments, make ready a Sample flat or a Show flat as they call it. Mostly sample flats are done on first or second floor ,where one of the apartment is finished & furnished earlier or many times they make it like a temporary Film set next to the marketing office. Sample flat is the exact replica & of same size as the various types of apartment in the scheme.

When you buy a new apartment, especially before the building is ready, this sample flat tells you the end story earlier. Sample flat explains various aspects..like
a) What will be the finishes of the Walls, Floors & Ceiling ?
b) What will be kind of doors & windows ?
c) What will be make & finishes of sanitary ware like WC pans, Basins, Sinks, Faucets used ?
d) What are Electrical fittings used & where are the various electrical points located.
e) What are the various plumbing fixtures used?
f) What will be tiles used & various options available for selection?
f) How will the furniture layout fit in reality in the apartment?

It is critical for the buyer to look at the sample flat & confirm that all the above aspects mentioned will be same as that of sample flat. It is also important to confirm that aspects like various electrical points & plumbing fixtures  shown in the sample flat are available within the cost of the flat & which are the ones that you are charged extra by the developer.

Just a kind reminder , that a sample flat cannot replace your own requirements & customizing your own house especially Electrical  & Plumbing layout as per your requirements. You need to Get prepared an interior layout of your own  furniture requirements & modify the electrical & plumbing layout according to your needs. Submit your layout to the site office of the developer to ask for changes. Many times it will so happen especially in areas like kitchen & bed rooms that even though the number of electrical points remain same, you require to change the location.

These days where concealed Electrification & Plumbing is used , it is important to decide  in advance all the aspects like :
a) What are the various kinds of Electrically powered Gadgets & Equipment you use or you will buy in future like.. Mixer, TV, Music system Washing machine, Water Heater, Air conditioning & Heating equipment, Dish washer, Microwave etc etc ?
b) Do you require extra lighting in the house?
c) If you will work from home, will you require points for charging your Laptop, for Speakers & printers etc
d) In plumbing fittings do you require to install a soap dish, Grab bars next to WC pans for old people to get up, Hand shower, low level urinals etc?
e) Will you need to change the kind of WC pan.. European to Indian in one of the toilets?
g) Do you require extra facilities for differently able children & old people. Make toilets wheel chair friendly?
h) Do you feel to change the specifications of tiles used in Toilet (Many times we have bought different tiles for our clients & given to developer for installation)
j) Most important to envisage a furniture layout as per your needs in the rooms even if you may not furnish the house in near future.

This list continues.....as per your needs.

End of the story is that It is very important to see the Sample flat but it is Best to go beyond & get you house Customized as per your own need.


...Hrishikesh

NATURAL LIGHT & COLORS IN YOUR HOME

Natural light is an aspect which determines the quality of light in daytime in your home. Generally as per sun movement, if your home has windows facing North, you will have an ambient natural light but sun rays may not enter your home. If your home has windows facing south or west, you will get sun rays inside your home. If your home has windows towards east , you will get sun rays only in morning. So before deciding which side to buy the home, it will be wiser to understand the orientation factor. Many a times in apartment blocks, some rooms open towards the duct, mostly kitchens. A duct in a tall building will not bring natural light in the room as duct will be always in shadows. In a situation like if few internal walls are avoided, you can get Natural light coming from the other face which has windows. Recently we customized an apartment for our friend Ar. Jaineel Trivedi. He had bought a wonderful apartment in Kondwa with a large terrace next to Living room. As he also is an Iskon devotee, he has regular ‘kirtans’ in his house. Hence he wanted to merge his terrace in the living room, so that more people can use the outside space for sitting on occasions when his living room will be full. The original pattern of a window & small door to enter the living room was changed to accommodate a large glazed door. 

Original wall pattern of Window & door to terrace

Large glazed door connecting Living room to Terrace

Though his interior work is still in progress, you can see in the comparable photographs above how the light quality increases. 

His kitchen has less light because it opens in a duct. Here we have used white tiles all over the walls so that whatever light comes in reflects.

Use of colour in Interiors depends totally on two principle facts:

1) What is the size of the room – If you use dark colors in a small size room, the room will appear smaller & vice versa. Many a times people ask carpenters to apply dark polish on all furniture items or purchase objects of dark color for their rooms. Dark polish & dark color laminates will make your rooms look smaller in size.

Small kitchen with light colors

2) The quality of natural light  in the room – Bright colors usually bring a cheerful mood. Colors like Red & Blue look great only if the walls on which they are applied have enough natural light falling on it. Otherwise they will appear blackish on dark lit walls.   Yellow or Orange , due to more wave lengths can look good even though applied on walls with less natural light.

A house where we highlighted a wall in Living room which made
the entire environment cheerful

Living space in a house, where the combination of
 Yellow & Orange changed the feel of Space

Simple strategy for our houses with mid size or small rooms will be – Have Plenty of Natural light & have very light colors for walls & furniture. Use colors only to highlight  a wall .

ON WHICH FLOOR TO LIVE ON ?

Every individual family who buys a new apartment is faced with this question of On what floor should they buy the home. These days is has become ‘fashionable’ to live higher especially in large cities like Pune & Mumbai. The reason, developers sell you fresh air & spectacular views of the surroundings. Developers in Pune will charge you extra money per square foot of the flat area which goes on increasing as you go higher. Now here we have to remember that you will get these views only if your building does not have a building as high as your building next to you. So if you have view as an important criterion, please enquire what is likely to happen in the immediate proximity of your building. View was an important criterion for me as well. So when I bought my home on 6^th floor, I ensured that I buy it on the side, where only small buildings were likely to get built in the vacant plot.

But ‘View’ should not be the only criteria while selecting the floor where to live on. Given below is a schematic section of a Tall building.

If you live on the ‘Ground floor’, you will enjoy the Garden, grow trees etc. Ground floor is the place to be if you love social interaction with your neighbors. So if your family is of socializing nature, living on ground floor is ideal. If your apartment does not have a ground floor, you can  still live on First floor, which is  the maximum height which connects you to people on the ground floor & you tend to socialize more.

View of Tree Foliage from third floor apartment window from
 my parents house

Birds seen in tree foliage
from third floor

If you live on ‘Second floor’ or ‘Third floor’, you are at the height of Tree foliage.  You can hear birds singing in the morning & birds will come in your windows & balconies. Your flat will get shaded by nearby large trees. To enjoy nature it is ideal to live on second or third floor. Before I shifted, we used to live on third floor. Today on sixth floor, we miss the sound of rain falling in trees & the song of the Cuckoo. My daughter misses the Sparrows & Bulbul birds coming in or house through our windows. If you live on ‘Fourth floor’  or maximum ‘Fifth floor’, you are still at the height of Tree tops.

View of surroundings from my Sixth floor flat -Terrace

If you live on ‘Sixth floor’ to ‘Tenth floor’, you will enjoy Long distance views if there is no high building next to your building. ‘Tenth floor’ upwards you will enjoy Spectacular long distance views as there are rare chances that you nay have a very tall building next to your building because tall buildings generally are built at certain distance.

All said & done, the interiors of your house should be planned sensitively to enjoy the outdoor views & nature. It makes a big difference if you have a window seat in the sill next to the wide window , so you can sit & enjoy the view. It is important that your Sofa in the living room faces the window or the terrace & does not make its back to the great views. When I was doing changes in one of the flats, we faced the bed towards the east side terrace in the master bedroom. So every time you wake up, you see the Rising sun from the large glass door of terrace. Connection of Interiors & exteriors has been a fundamental Design principle in our traditional ‘Wada’ Architecture & much more refined in traditional ‘Japanese’ Zen Buildings.

So when you are deciding on the floor, on which you will live, ‘Look around your Building’ for answers.

Hrishikesh

I WANT 'MY HOME' LIKE 'THEIR HOME'

A few days back, a dear friend called me saying I should accompany him earnestly to his under construction apartment . The reason-There were some changes they were asking the developer to do in their apartment, which the developer was denying. So I went along with my friend & found out, that his wife had seen similar changes being done in their neighboring apartment & had liked them, so she wanted to repeat the same in their home. So I suggested that we see both the flats. After analyzing both the houses, I realized that, even though the two flats had similar layout, technically they were not the same. The room sizes in his house were much smaller. There were columns & beams of varying heights within the walls as compared to his neighbor’s house. These conditions made it difficult for the developer to remove the walls their neighbors had removed & also even if they do so(with lot of expense), the space will appear very different than the space they had liked in the other house. So I had a difficult time explaining to him & his wife that, their house was great as it is & no changes will be required to be done.

This is the most common phenomena Architects encounter. People are overwhelmed by other houses they like & want their house to look ‘the Same’. It is not possible every time because  I think every house can be custom made as per your requirements & each condition (technical as well as liking factor) is different from person to person as well as house to house. People come with photos, refer to houses they see in daily serials, movies, magazines etc. A client wanted to fit a semicircular staircase he had seen in a brochure in his bungalow which I was designing on a very small plot. We have a young IT professional living in our building  who eagerly picked up an expensive sofa set from a showroom & had to sell it off the very next day , just because the sofa which he felt great in the showroom would not fit in his modestly size living room. People are shocked when they find out the very curtains which they had liked in the shop would not match with the decor what they have in their existing rooms.

The main reason why people like other people’s homes is related with their aspirations in wanting what they do not have & wish to have. People literally see themselves living is a space they like & there is nothing wrong in this. The only issue here is as compared with a simple decision of buying a car which you may have liked in the showroom, making changes in the house or adding an object in the house is related with the overall experience of the interior space which the human mind feels. Here a good Architect can advice you because he is trained in sensing the scale & proportions due to which he can help decide the size, location, color & texture of various surfaces & objects in a room. The lifestyle & culture of the person whose house you may have liked may be completely different from you, which needs to be considered while designing. Also there are a large number of technical issues regarding construction, which you may not understand.

The moral of this post is that, even though it is your right to have a space designed suiting best to your liking & life style, it is best to consult an Architect during this process. I advice my clients to send me what I call an ‘Imagery’ in form of photographs of all the various spaces they have liked so that I can get an idea of what they like. I also try to understand in depth their lifestyle & culture which helps me in customizing their home.

So instead of copying the Home of your friend or a neighbor , figure out what ‘You like’ & what is ‘Best suitable to your lifestyle’

- Hrishikesh 

IS VASTUSHASTRA REALLY IMPORTANT ?

The advent of this ancient science (is it a science?) of Vastushastra is credited to the Vedic civilization in our country, where a Vastupurush mandala was used to define the cardinal directions of placing various rooms within the house. In last 15 years or so, we are witnessing a revival, where many people claim that if this system is followed, we get results like health & wealth in our life. There are for & opposite opinions towards this aspects.

There are certain directional aspects given in Vastushastra which hold true & seem logical, if we want to place a house on an open plot in our Hot tropical country . Eg – Kitchen to the east /southeast will obviously have morning sun rays coming in Kitchen & you will feel fresh. Bedroom advocated by vastushastra in south west is considered to be the major direction of wind. Living areas to north are the areas which will remain cool because as sun moves from east to west, it seldom comes in from the north inside the house. Staircase block placed in south or west increases building height & shades the house. The open space as per vastushastra is in the center. Most of our traditional houses had shaded courtyards from where light & ventilation to inner rooms were taken.

Let us not forget that even if Vastushatra is our ancestral wisdom,it evolved centuries ago when the social conditions were different . When you try to apply the same logic of cause & effect of the Do’s & Dont’s  in today’s circumstances of apartment housing built to accommodate more & more units for Sale only, the original wisdom is twisted & applied. When you put four apartments around one staircase & lift shaft, you are bound to get three apartments which are non Vastu complaint as per the directions given by Vastushastra. Certain logical explanations regarding history & evolution of Vastushatra are given in the web site of Maharashtra Andhashradha Nirmulan Samiti. Check their url with link -www.antisuperstition.org

So I  leave it to you to believe it or not !

As Architects, we believe that the logic of Design lies in Space making & providing comfortable living conditions in your home with or without Vastushastra.

- Hrishikesh

DO WE NEED WALLS ?

Do we really need walls in houses today? 

The concept of wall dividing rooms evolved due to the notion of privacy & security. In the times when women & children were not supposed to mix with the outside guests, kitchens were with walls & doors. Many a times , in the old typologies like ‘Wada’ or Haveli, you will find separate internal courtyards, where the kitchens & family spaces open out. Against the huge size of earlier houses, our homes are like match boxes (apartment blocks). Also now times have changed, where women are equal (or stronger !) than men & are mostly working women. The kitchen is no longer a secret or a very private space. & can be opened out to the living areas. Hence the walls between Kitchen & Living can ‘disappear’ or have a semi existence enough to cut of the vision (of the mess we create while cooking) from the living areas. Yes but we do need walls with doors for Bedrooms which are still very private spaces. Sometimes walls can become grills or semi transparent screens as well. Thus the locations & character of walls depends upon the ‘notion of privacy’ of your own family.

Here are a few examples of Walls between Kitchen & Living rooms

In our own home, a step wall with high ceiling connects living room to the kitchen. It hides a refrigerator behind it.

 A stepped wall with  connects living room to the kitchen. It hides a Kitchen ota behind it. This is in a 3bhk fkat we customized in Kothrud -Pune.

A dwarf wall which divides (& hides a dining table) Living room & Kitchen in another house we customized in Pune.

Here is a wall in form of a partition in a friends house, we did. It has a glass which stills brings light from the large kitchen window behind but also has storage which can be accessed from the kitchen.

You can very well have an Open kitchen, if you eliminate the wall between Living / Dining & Kitchen. Some times , even a serving platform counter with cabinets above  can partially divide the Kitchen from the living area.

We still feel , bedroom need walls, though few days back, a very senior Architect was telling me about this house which he is doing, where bedrooms do not have walls, but sliding translucent glass partitions. So the entire house opens & glass screens can slide whenever you require them to. Strangely, the traditional Architecture of Japan had sliding screens dividing rooms many centuries ago!

So, when you have a  question about building internal walls, think twice before you build them. If you don’t something different can be done with them.


-   Hrishikesh

INTERIOR CHANGES DURING CONSTRUCTION

It is always beneficial to select an under construction house, if you  want to customize it as per your needs. The earlier you book, better it is .

Following are the changes you can make in your apartment as per the stages of construction :

1) The floor slab is yet to be cast:

a) You can leave conduits for electrification more preciselly  or you can install floor mounted concealed up lights.

b) If you want to have partition walls in some other material other than brick like Ferrocement , you can leave continuation from the floor slab reinforcement steel bars

c) You can leave cutouts within the floor slab after consulting the Structural engineer or the original Architect of the apartment

2) The floor slab is cast but the RCC columns & roof slab are yet to be cast:

An ideal stage to get the changes required done

a) You can run concealed pipe lines for electrification through columns & beams

b) You can control beam depths of roof slab (you can make them more but cannot reduce them) in consultation with Structural engineer

c) You can make cut outs in roof slab if your apartment has got a terrace above & have skylights afterwards

d) You can add or omit RCC lofts for storage

e) You can leave extra hooks in the roof slab for “zula” or swings

f) You can add extra electric points in the slab along with metal hooks for extra fans or you can change the location.

g) You can leave metal pipes in beams for passing AC drain pipes of extra electric conduits

h) You can omit RCC lintels over entrance doors if you want large openings especially when lintels are connected to columns

3) Entire RCC work is over but Brickwork & plaster is not yet complete:

a) You can change location of Walls & alter heights of walls as most walls are partition walls in Brick or Concrete block.

b) Alter Toilet layout & Change Sanitary ware & alter plumbing accordingly

c) Alter entire electrical layout based upon an Interior layout according to your needs & select fitting accordingly.  You can make provision for Inverter battery backup.

d) Change sizes of Doors & Windows (although some developers do not allow changing sizes of windows as it affects the external elevation of building). You can even ask the developers to fix doors & their fittings as per your material specifications.

e) Change entire kitchen layout & plumbing and also make provision for Dishwasher and Washing machine in kitchen or dry balcony.

f) Change entire finishing like Flooring tiles, Wall tiles in toilet & Tiles in Kitchen, Paints etc

4) The apartment is entirely complete with all finishes & fittings:

a) In case you get a property which is complete or you buy a Resale property, it will still be worthwhile & it is very much possible to make changes in the concealed electrical wiring & concealed plumbing according to your Interior layout & design requirements.

b) You can go in for an entire Interior makeover with Wall panelling wherever required, False ceiling (in which you can install light fittings as per your needs) & Custom made furniture.

c) Now a days , some many modern materials of construction are available in India like you can make partition walls using Dry wall systems like Light weight interlocking Puff Sandwich panels or Gypsum systems or Sliding folding partitions using Branded hardware. Hence even if you need to make any changes in house which is complete, there are Lot of  possibilities !

A small piece of Advice :

Never go in for any major decision of Interior changes & Design on your own without involving  professional help from either an Architect or an experienced Interior Designer. Some times you may feel things as very easy & you may succeed doing it through your Carpenter ,Mason or a Contractor but you may waste More Money ,More time & Energy & will never get the same result, a professional will get.

- Hrishikesh

SELECTING YOUR DREAM HOME

Selecting an ideal house is always a major decision in Life. Few aspects what people see and which are of course important are Locality, in which you select to live, Amenities, Children’s play areas & facilities like Parking, convenient shops nearby, or availability of  public transport systems etc. People who believe will look deeply into ‘Vastushastra’ or any of the spiritual science pertaining to their own castes or sects. Principles of Directionality, giving the location of Rooms according to Vastushastra can give you Health & Wealth as per your belief, but there is very Big Question you should ask yourself:

Does your Home , (the apartment according to its plan) suit your Needs & lifestyle?

In reality the Apartments in India are designed & developed as ‘Salable Commodity’ by the developer. Thus the maximum available FSI (Floor space Index – A legal term giving the maximum amount of Built area you can build on a given area of plot) is consumed to fit in as many number of apartments as possible. Even though certain principles of Vastushastra like East West entrance may be followed, in larger projects there may be huge number of flat which may not be ‘Vastu compliant’. Also while planning Apartments are stacked together to save a lot of Cost price , for e.g- saving on shuttering used for slab casting or the length of drainage piping etc  as the Developer has already invested huge funds in buying the expensive land ,where he goes on to build the scheme. The design of all flats has to be same to achieve an economy & speed of construction. Hence in reality only few variations are made & it is up to you & your family to adjust in the purchased apartment.

Instead of running from project to project or from agent to agent , if we can judge the Apartment based upon its plan (available in brochures) we can very well shortlist few houses & select one of them.

Hence, all  we need to look at “What are the few common patterns of apartment designs generally available” & chose one of them in which you can stay as per your lifestyle after making minor modifications if required.

Given below are few types along with their Diagrams which represent their planning patterns.

One Bedroom Hall Kitchen house –  1 BHK flat

a) Generally Designed as a compact unit with an area somewhere between  450 -600 sq ft.

b)      A General Design diagram is as given along. It will have a sequential layout of rooms placed along one another –Living – Kitchen Dinning– Bedroom. Space for a small dinning table may be available in the Kitchen. Room sizes may vary but in general you will have Living room as the largest, Bedroom without an attached toilet, & then the smaller Kitchen

c)       Toilets will be generally divided into separate WC & Bath area. In some smaller size flats this division is not made & there is a common toilet with a small lobby. Wash basin is generally placed in the toilet lobby.

d)      It may have a single Terrace or a balcony of around 35 -50 sq ft accessed either from Living room or from Bedroom. You can decide which to take but remember one thing, that very rarely 1BHK flats have a Dry Balcony, so ultimately your clothes line or even a washing machine will be seen on this terrace

The biggest challenge in owning a 1BHK flat is that, how can you make the maximum use of the small area available & accommodate maximum facilities according to your needs of a Growing family. Another challenge is figuring out how the various rooms can change functions  as per their requirement , like many a time, the Living room will have to function as a Bedroom in the night if the family is large or if guests come to stay.

2BHK TYPE A: 850 to 1200 sq ft area

a) This is the most common type of plan, where rooms are sequentially arranged. So you enter in the Living room which should be large to accommodate a sofa set, TV unit & may be an Indian sitting area. Living  may or may not have an entrance lobby, though it is great if you have a lobby as it ads into more privacy. Then you access the kitchen. From kitchen you can access the bedroom areas , toilet & dry balcony.

b) This kind of layout is beneficial for people who like to have a certain privacy for  Kitchen, Dining  & Bedroom areas.

c) There is  also a possibility of having an open kitchen by making low height walls or by dividing using a pantry serving counter. Many times kitchen comes with an L shape kitchen plat form or two parallel platforms. An area for Fridge should be clearly defined so as to make the minimum movement triangle between Fridge, Sink & Cooking flame .

d) There are usually two toilets. A set of WC & Batch (sometimes as common toilet) with a lobby & one attached to the Master bedroom

e) Master bedroom is usually larger to accommodate, a large wardrobe, Bed, Bedside table, Study table & may be a blank wall to have a Television. The other Bedroom can be planned as Kid’s bedroom

f) The terrace is attached to Living room or Bedroom and can be well maintained as washing clothes & drying can go in the Dry balcony.

This kind of layout is Best for a Family of four with two kids and because there is a Designated space for each activity, the Interiors can be planned with furniture elements which are rather ‘Stable’ & with a Designer brand & Character to suit your lifestyle.  

There is a variant which come as 2.5 BHK, where an additional room of minimum size (10’ x 10’) is added which can double up as a Study or Puja room or which can be merged with Kitchen is placed alongside.

2BHK Type B: With Non -Sequential Room arrangement

a) In this kind of a planning pattern , you will have  the Kitchen right at the Entrance of the Apartment & may be accessible from outside or soon as you enter. Thus you can enter the kitchen without disturbing the activity in Living room

b) In this case dining area may be integrated with the Living room or may be separately provided

c) Bedroom area with two bedrooms will be similar to Type 1

This kind of layout will be useful to people who would like to have a Kitchen area approachable from outside especially where you have Maids or Domestic help to  work separately in Kitchen without disturbing your life in Living area & Bedrooms.

3BHK Type A: 1000 sq ft to 1700 sq ft area with Sequential Room  arrangement

a) Sequential arrangement of Rooms starting from Living to Kitchen dining then three bedrooms.Living is a large room similar to the living in any 2 BHK apartment , where one can accommodate range of sitting arrangements. It may have a separate Dining area attached to either living room or kitchen .

b) Usually two bedrooms will have an attached toilet. One bedroom will function as Parents bedroom, the other two being children’s bedroom & master bedroom

c) It may not have a separate set of Bath & WC . It will be replaced by a common toilet with a lobby.

d) Rest all facilities like kitchen , dry balcony etc will be similar to a 2BHK apartment.

e) There may be two terraces, one large & one small.

A traditional type of 3BHK apartment, will be very useful for a large family with parents, two kids & grandparents living in the same home. Or separate rooms can be given to kids Though the investment in terms of total price may be high as area is more, it is worthwhile to buy a 3BHK apartment when you family size is bound to be large.

3 BHK Type B: With Additional Bedroom arrangement

a) This type of 3BHK apartment will be actually a sequential 2BHK flat but with an additional Bedroom added along with an attached toilet

b) A characteristic of this type of room arrangement is that the 3rd room is right after you enter the house or directly accessible from outside.

This kind of apartment is best buy for people who envisage a ‘Work from home’ office or a segregated study area  or have frequent guests coming who need to be occasionally accommodated.

With a large 3BHK apartment, a Duplex or a 3.5 BHK variant may also be available,though they may have their advantages & Disadvantages.

- Hrishikesh