ARCADÉ STUDIO
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The Oak House seen from the garden — a low modern villa with a lap pool along its length.

Project 02 — Contemporary Villa

The Oak House

A villa for two generations under one roof, organised around a courtyard and a staircase that behaves like a room.

LocationBangalore, India
Year2025
Area6,200 sq. ft.
Location
Bangalore, India
Area
6,200 sq. ft.
Type
Residential
Year
2025
Scope
Interior Architecture + Turnkey
Programme
16 months
§ 01 Project story

A villa for two generations under one roof, organised around a courtyard and a staircase that behaves like a room.

Two households, one address. The plan is a shallow U wrapped around a planted courtyard, so both halves of the family look at the same garden and neither looks at the other. Oak appears everywhere it can carry structure or storage, and nowhere it would only decorate.

The challenge

The clients wanted independence without separation. Our answer was acoustic rather than spatial: shared circulation, but every party wall built as a decoupled double leaf, and soft floor finishes in every room that sits above another.

Spatial planning

Ground floor holds the shared rooms and the senior suite. The upper floor is a self-contained apartment with its own kitchen. The courtyard is the hinge — every corridor ends looking at it.

Project team

Meera Anand, Ishan Kurup, Farhan Qureshi

§ 02 The design Material palette

Five materials carry the whole project. Everything else is a variation on one of them.

European OakFloors, joinery, stair
Grey BasaltCourtyard and wet areas
Lime RenderInterior walls
Wool BoucléSeating
Blackened SteelStair balustrade, frames
§ 03 Room by room
01 — Living

Living

One long room with the garden on one side and the courtyard on the other, so it is lit from both flanks and never needs a lamp before six.

Living room at The Oak House opening onto a garden through full-height glazing.
Pl. 02Living room, garden side
02 — Kitchen

Kitchen

Dark stained oak and a single dark marble slab. The working kitchen sits behind it, out of sight, with its own extract and its own door to the service yard.

Kitchen at The Oak House with dark timber cabinetry and a marble worktop.
Pl. 03Kitchen
03 — Bedroom

Bedroom

Five bedrooms, each with a window seat deep enough to sleep in. Joinery is full height and stops 40 mm short of the ceiling to let the plaster run past.

Bedroom at The Oak House with a low bed, pale walls and daylight from a side window.
Pl. 04Guest bedroom
04 — Bathroom

Bathroom

Oak battens run up the wall and turn across the ceiling. Basalt underfoot. The mirror is the only thing that reflects.

Bathroom at The Oak House lined with timber panelling and pale marble around a white basin.
Pl. 05Family bathroom
05 — Dining

Dining

Fourteen chairs, one table, no sideboard — the storage is in the wall behind, flush and unhandled.

Dining room at The Oak House with a long timber table and tall windows onto the garden.
Pl. 06Dining room
06 — Stair

Stair

The stair is the house’s one indulgence: a single sweep with a blackened steel balustrade, lit from a slot rooflight directly above it.

Curved staircase at The Oak House with a dark metal balustrade and polished floor below.
Pl. 07Main stair
Custom furniture

A fourteen-seat dining table, the courtyard bench, and a run of library joinery on the landing. All in European oak, all detailed with the same 6 mm shadow gap so the house reads as one hand.

Lighting

Daylight does the work. After dark, the house runs on wall-washing and table lamps; the only ceiling fittings are over worktops and the stair.

§ 04 The plan 6,200 sq. ft. plus 900 sq. ft. courtyard
Fig. AIndicative zoning diagram — not a measured survey drawing.
Levels
2
Rooms
15
Orientation
Courtyard-facing, north-south axis
Footprint
6,200 sq. ft. plus 900 sq. ft. courtyard
§ 05 Gallery Select an image to enlarge
The Oak House seen from the garden — a low modern villa with a lap pool along its length.
01The Oak House — Contemporary Villa
Living room at The Oak House opening onto a garden through full-height glazing.
02Living room, garden side
Kitchen at The Oak House with dark timber cabinetry and a marble worktop.
03Kitchen
Bedroom at The Oak House with a low bed, pale walls and daylight from a side window.
04Guest bedroom
Bathroom at The Oak House lined with timber panelling and pale marble around a white basin.
05Family bathroom
Dining room at The Oak House with a long timber table and tall windows onto the garden.
06Dining room
Curved staircase at The Oak House with a dark metal balustrade and polished floor below.
07Main stair
Exterior of The Oak House at dusk, with timber screening and planting along the entrance path.
08Entrance elevation
Atelier 27 studio floor with long timber benches, task lighting and rows of workstations.

Next project — 03

Atelier 27

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