Reflections is a contemporary residence in Bangalore that reimagines the traditional Manduva concept within a compact 2,700 sq ft plot. Designed for a client deeply rooted in culture, traditions, and nostalgic memories, the home creates a meaningful connection between heritage and contemporary urban living.
Spanning approximately 8,000 sq ft of built-up area, the residence is organized around a central courtyard that brings light, ventilation, greenery, and visual connectivity across multiple levels. Traditional elements such as Kota stone, natural materials, brass inlays, wooden details, jaali screens, Kalamkari artwork, and temple-inspired ceiling forms are thoughtfully integrated into a modern architectural language.
A palette of earthy greens, natural textures, and handcrafted elements evokes the native landscape while creating a strong sense of belonging. Biophilic design, layered spaces, and carefully framed views allow the home to celebrate cultural memory while meeting the functional demands of a contemporary family home.
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Reflections is a contemporary residence in Bangalore that blends cultural nostalgia with urban living. Designed by Black Box Design Studio and Imaya House of Design, the home reimagines the traditional Manduva concept within a 2,700 sq ft plot, utilizing raw materials and biophilic elements to create a sanctuary rooted in the client's heritage and native landscape.
Reflections, it's all about stories and nostalgic memories of client
who was rooted to his culture and traditions and practices and wanted to pass on to his next
generations. The design integrates a palette and materiality that evokes the native landscape
aiming to create a sense of belonging for the client.
The traditional Mandua concept is reimagined to fit in a compact 2,700 square feet of plot.
This innovative approach adopts the heritage-rich concept
to the demands of a contemporary urban lifestyle.
Hi, myself architect Guna, principal partner in Black Box Design Studio, Bangalore.
Hi, this is Imaya, principal interior designer and partner at Imaya House of Design,
also a sister company of Black Box Design Studio.
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This is a north-facing plot of 2,700 square feet. It's a total of 8,000 square feet of built-up
space which is located in a gated community of Bangalore and fully surrounded with a dense
tech park all around. And as we enter, we got this linear water body on one side
and a skylight on top. So here we got this multiple car parking spaces right in the beginning.
The staircase is a unique feature by itself in this home.
In the ground floor, we got this solid staircase along the side of a hard landscape
which also has cantilever steps. We take the stairs from ground to first floor
and we come with this beautiful duco-finished door and you enter this double light pre-entry space.
Next, you come to a puja room. The client actually wanted an open puja room.
We have continued the same quota flooring with a nice column brass inlay as a main highlighter here.
Along with that, we have given a nice wooden fluted antique pillars on either side.
And we step up, we enter a living space. We got a rammed earth wall on one side and also we got
this linear landscape on one side with a jali facing the north which acts as a privacy space
and also by not cutting the north light coming inside. So these concrete jalis are precast and
we have got all these jalis inserted to a 12 mm rod from top to the bottom and it's been fixed
to the pergola on top. We got this manduva space surrounded with all multi-level spaces
like living, dining and a kitchen and a corridor space where people would like to see from all
these spaces they walk around. This space got a beautiful skylight on top. Along with it,
we have added a green curtain creepers falling down which acts as a feature by itself.
And it adds more drama to the space where we have created a jali all around the creepers
to have a hot air escape. So the wooden balusters, we tried and made a silhouette of it.
We interpreted the silhouette of Kondapalli toys and played with the colors of the same.
Where these balusters not only act as a partition, it acts as a railing as it moves to the next
level. We got this leather granite flooring as a seater which turns it into a planter box on
one side. We have extruded one of the staircase tread as a bench which acts as a seater looking
the courtyard and my living space. We got this unique stringer staircase where one of the
stringer is taken as a handrail and as I move further, my hand touches this copper railing
and my foot touches the wooden tread. So the second floor is with a master bedroom on one side.
Attached toilet and a wardrobe space next to it. The master bedroom has a very unique floral pattern
and what we played is with the same floral pattern we depicted on the wall with the
lime wash just as a stencil which acts as a backdrop with a nice cove light behind.
On the other hand side, we got this guest bedroom space with a dress and a toilet.
The guest bedroom has again the same color palette of green but we try to play it with
the pastel green along with the contemporary pattern. We have a contrast color as a pink which
acts as an accent to the entire leather headboard that we have given. So we have a wide linear
window on one side with the opening towards the north and gives a wider angle of view
to my outside space. So we use this life-sized kalamkari art so that you can see this from every
eye level perspective from each and every angle of space. Along this staircase we got the seaters
which acts as extended seating for my family space which is looking the courtyard space
on one side and the foyer space on the other hand side and we got this metal shape which
has been folded into steps and also a wooden tread on top and we have given a unique color
of green to itself and also we got a glass railing to make it look more lighter. As we move
from staircase we got this a bar counter space which is overlooking my terrace and the landscape
on the other hand side. We have an entertainment space of home theater on one corner. This house
features with a lot of raw materials what we try to explore. We have used like cotta flooring
and we have used all natural stones for the porticos and of course we have treated
our entire courtyard with the bricks and the cobbled stone to it. The design creates a
harmonious interplay between cultural memory and current spatial constraints by incorporating
biophonic concepts and temple ceiling imagery into a contemporary framework.
