Aesthetics

Interior · Vashi, New Bombay · 2016

A sound experience shop designed to feel like a home: a wall of reclaimed wood that absorbs sound, a ceiling of stars in optical fibre, and furniture made to move on.

In 2016, a small shop in Vashi, in Navi Mumbai, asked for something unusual: a place where people could experience sound, on a low budget.

The owner sold home automation, security and sound systems, at a time when these were new to the region. He wanted every visitor to feel at home, and to believe that this could happen in their own, well-designed houses. A shop could not convince them. A living room could.

That was the challenge: a long, narrow commercial unit that had to feel like a home. And there was one more condition. The shop was a short-term rental. So the design is an amalgamation of modular pieces, made to leave when the lease ends.

A wall of reclaimed wood, cut into blocks and stained from honey to deep red, each block set at its own depth, absorbs sound and plays with light. It is also a pattern, which changes as you walk past it. The blocks are fixed onto smaller panels, so the wall is modular too, like the furniture and the lamps: every piece can be lifted and carried to a new address. A door in pale blue is traced with red conduit, so even the wiring becomes part of the picture.

Overhead, a dark blue ceiling carries constellations drawn in optical fibre, beneath floating acoustic panels. Light washes the ceiling, and the panels seem to hang in the air. In the evening, the room can turn violet, with a deep sofa and a glass-topped table of twisting white frames.

Architectural psychology tells us that people trust what feels familiar, so warm materials, soft light and a deep sofa did the persuading, not a sales pitch.

When the room goes quiet, you forget you are in a shop. You are at home, listening.

Client: Mayur Damania. Design: Mu.S.Ex.

Pictures