The Dadar Parsi colony is one of the quieter pockets of Mumbais, which is miraculously isolates from the pace of the city. Here the type of Art -deco buildings – are a little less seductive than their counterparts in South Bombay – and are mainly inhabited by the city's Zoroastric population. The age of the houses in this enclave of the early 1920s is told by several: old terrazzo floors, Art Deco Lights, Bombay Blackwood and modern furniture from the middle of the century, original window grills, crown strips and other such details. In an age beige, these exist as microcosms of the city's cultural and creative history, which manifests itself as a design, has existence. Such a home that belonged to the family of the architect Cherag Bardolivala urgently needed a facelift. He accepted the interior as a special creative exercise, since – given the fact that the house was not occupied, it was not designed for a specific customer or end user. “So I gave him my personal expression and designed it according to my sensitivity to the design and my aesthetics,” he says.
An exercise in preservation
Conservation, wherever possible, made the decisions of Bardolivala. The conscious binding of the colorful minton tile floor, which has the passage, the living room and the main bedroom, was determined. Bardolivala says: “The restoration was carried out by Bharat Flooring, who meticulously cleaned and revived the tiles and brought back as much of its original liveliness and details as possible.” The ceiling with an artistic crown form called for the same care. “The house had originally discovered electrical lines that had run over the ceilings. While the simplest solution had installed a conventional spill point, I decided to avoid this route. Instead, I only designed a floating false deck in the center of the living room – and the original crown shape, a defining architectural characteristic of the homeland, was allowed. Terminated details were revised to the original design.
Blessing in disguise
One of the basic goals of Bardolivala with the 1,000 square meter interior was to rewrite the somewhat unpleasant and chunky internal layout to optimize the room. For an apartment that was built in the mid -1900s, this was easier to say than done. “In view of the fact that the building has from load -bearing constructions, structural changes were minimal. All proposed changes, even at wall openings, were carried out with extreme caution and in consultation with a civil engineer to ensure that the structural integrity of the house is not uncompromising,” says Bardolivala.