Hearing the name Design DNA might make you think the architects behind it are hardwired for design—but few would expect that their specialty is the unapologetically eccentric kind. Arcot puts a finer point on the subject. Now, that was an act of rebellion. They did know, however, that they wanted this home in Chennai to be bold and brooding and brutalist.
The rest, as they saw it, was a brilliant blank canvas. The facade is a brooding grey. A short flight of stairs, erected atop 2-tonne boulders, lead up to the front door. Few architects turn on the quirk for a home that isn't theirs, and Arcot was no exception.
Skewing dark was one thing, but skewing too dark was quite another. The living room, punctuated by a burnt orange sofa from Spacewise Furniture, basks in mellow tones.
The staircase is a floating curiosity that melds into the shell by virtue of its colour. This home in Chennai is a lesson in levitation. The entrance, perched over two-tonne stone boulders and supported by reinforcement rods, appears to defy gravity, while the base cabinets in the kitchen float above the floor, skimming the air like a perfectly balanced hovercraft. The breakfast counter is a similarly wafting curiosity, as is the picnic bench in the dining room, which hovers above the ground, thanks to mild steel elements.
Not everything, however, is about upward movement. Exhibit A: the foot-tall repurposed rosewood doors leading into the living room, framing an uninterrupted view of the garden. Exhibit B: the expansive French windows in the dining room, which open out to the lush greenery in the backyard. After all, who else could make a home float, invite trees to stop by, and turn breakfast into a high-flying affair?
