Living
A sofa, a low table and the band. The band is the bookshelf, the sideboard, the shoe store and the seat by the door.
Kestrel House
Two people, one thousand one hundred and fifty square feet, and a rule that nothing may exist that does not also store something.
- Location
- Pune, India
- Area
- 1,150 sq. ft.
- Type
- Residential
- Year
- 2024
- Scope
- Complete Interior
- Programme
- 5 months
§ 01
Project story
Two people, one thousand one hundred and fifty square feet, and a rule that nothing may exist that does not also store something.
Small homes are usually ruined by trying to look large. We did the opposite — the rooms are frankly small, but every one of them is finished to the same standard as a house four times the size, and every horizontal surface is also a lid.
Storage for two people in 1,150 sq. ft. without visible cupboard doors anywhere in the living space. The answer was 380 mm: a continuous band of joinery at that depth wrapping three rooms, sometimes a bench, sometimes a desk, sometimes a bedhead.
The flat is read as one L-shaped space with two rooms opening off it. The bedroom door is a full-height pocket panel that disappears into the wall when open, so the plan reads as open for most of the day.
Devika Raghunath
§ 02
The design
Five materials carry the whole project. Everything else is a variation on one of them.
Birch PlyAll joinery, edge exposed
Micro-cementFloors and bathroom
Chalk PaintWalls and ceilings
Stone Wool FeltBedroom wall lining
Brushed SteelIronmongery
§ 03
Room by room
Kitchen
Galley, 2.7 m long, with everything within one step of the sink. The dining table is fixed to the end of the run.
Bedroom
A platform with drawers beneath, a felt-lined wall behind, and a pocket door that lets the room join the flat during the day.
Bathroom
One material, wall to wall to floor, and a mirror the full width of the room to double it.
Work
The desk is 420 mm of the band, in front of the window, with a light on a bracket above it.
The continuous 380 mm band, the bed platform and the dining bench. Three pieces, one detail, one finish.
Wall-mounted throughout — no floor lamps, no table lamps, nothing that occupies surface area that could hold a book instead.
§ 04
The plan
Public floorServiceCoreStorePrivateOutdoor
- 1
- 4
- East-facing, single aspect
- 1,150 sq. ft. on one level
§ 05
Gallery
Northlight Studio