How does one blend the bathroom with the look of the rest of house? Kalpak Shah of Pune’s Studio Course takes us through the planning and design, on how to seamlessly integrate the two spaces. 

What was the client brief for this project?
They wanted to contemporise mid-century modern architecture – simplistic, minimal design with careful selection of sustainable materials. And precision in details with local craftsmanship was extremely central to this space.

How did you go about planning the property?
The plot sits within a community of 15 other bungalows so it had to abide to the builder’s original plans, facade look, finishing treatment and appearance. Due to these constraints, the internal spaces and planning became our way to experiment with the design. This project, the T House, is planned in such a way that the circulation core and passages are in the centre with all the living spaces built around it. This opened up the entire house to the outdoors, bringing in a lot of natural light and ventilation in each room.

How did the bathroom, with its wet and dry areas, tie in with the design language of the rest of the home?
With the colours being inspired from nature, we used black granite for the floors and hand-painted walls in grey to display the tactility of the process. The skirting rises a few inches higher than the general norm, give a sense of solidity to the space. The walls of the toilets are in white, with Kota flooring in a lighter grey to respect the smaller volume of the room. The idea was to maintain cohesion with the rest of the house and to have the space look calm and serene. Finally, we used a glass cuboid with a timber frame to separate the wet and dry areas of the bathroom.