Ahmedabad-based Studio Saransh has completed NG Apartment, a residential interior project that revisits the city’s modernist legacy within the confines of a contemporary high-rise. Located in Ahmedabad, the project translates the material and spatial ethos of the Corbusian era into a lived domestic environment, moving beyond stylistic imitation toward a more experiential reconstruction.
Commissioned by a client deeply rooted in the city’s cultural identity, the brief called for a home that would evoke the essence of Ahmedabad’s modernist architecture rather than resemble a conventional apartment. Principal Interior Designer Kaveesha Shah describes the intent as creating a space where “the essence of modernist Ahmedabad lingers—in its materials, textures, and the air.”
The design process began with stripping the apartment of its standard finishes to reveal a more elemental base. Rather than relying on decorative interventions, the studio introduced minimal structural changes, focusing instead on reconfiguring the spatial and material language. The layout departs subtly from typical apartment planning: a linear corridor connects the formal drawing room to private quarters, culminating in a lounge carved out of a former bedroom.
Materiality plays a central role in establishing this narrative. Brick-clad walls, exposed RCC ceilings, and polished Kota stone flooring reference the palette of Ahmedabad’s mid-century modern homes. A continuous wooden datum runs along the walls, concealing services while reinforcing a sense of proportion and order associated with Corbusian design principles. Lighting is discreetly embedded within brass plates and suspended channels, allowing surfaces and textures to remain visually dominant.
The project is marked by a series of finely calibrated details. Door handles subtly echo the sculptural forms of Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut, while a brick-vaulted corridor recalls the jack arches of the Sarabhai House. Mirrors placed at either end extend this vault visually, creating an illusion of continuity. In the drawing room, a traditional Gujarati hinchko (swing) anchors the space, bridging modernist restraint with regional memory.
Private spaces maintain continuity with the overall language while introducing nuanced variations. The master bedroom retains the exposed material palette but incorporates warmer wooden flooring. In contrast, the son’s bedroom adopts a more experimental approach, replacing conventional storage with a bespoke library wall and visually connecting the bathroom to the sleeping area through a glass partition with operable wooden shutters.
A distinct shift occurs in the lounge, conceived as a retreat within the home. Finished with cast-in-situ terrazzo flooring and stucco walls, the space departs from the dominant palette to create a more relaxed, tactile atmosphere. Details such as a curved skirting and a reinterpreted wooden datum at lintel level reinforce the studio’s attention to continuity, even within contrast.
Rather than functioning as a nostalgic replica, NG Apartment operates as a reconstitution of memory: translating the ideological and material sensibilities of Ahmedabad’s modernist past into a contemporary domestic setting. Through calibrated interventions and a restrained material palette, Studio Saransh positions the project as an exploration of how architectural memory can be embedded within everyday life.
Project Details
Architects: Studio Saransh
Typology: Residential Interior
Location: Ahmedabad
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