Villa 1374 stands as a testament to contemporary residential architecture in Bangalore, India, completed in 2024 by the innovative team at The Purple Ink Studio. The 15,800-square-foot home occupies a plotted development in North Bangalore, an area characterized by organized infrastructure and tree-lined streets. The design team, led by principals Akshay Heranjal, Aditi Pai, and Nishita Bhatia, created a residence that fundamentally reimagines the relationship between built form and landscape. Their approach transforms a standard plot into a nuanced exploration of space, nature, and materiality. The project demonstrates how thoughtful architecture can create intimate connections with the environment while providing generous family living spaces.
The site presented a unique opportunity with an existing cluster of mature trees along its boundary, which the architects consciously incorporated into their design narrative. Rather than clearing the land, they borrowed this natural canopy, allowing it to extend into the home's visual and spatial experience. The surrounding plotted development offered wide streets and dense tree cover, creating a neighborhood context that informed the villa's orientation and massing. This sensitivity to existing vegetation became a driving force behind the design's layered composition. The architects treated the trees not as obstacles but as essential characters in the home's story.
A solid, almost monolithic base anchors the house to the ground, while upper volumes appear to float and shift, creating dynamic interplays of mass and void. The staggered arrangement of these volumes carves out deliberate pockets of green space at every level, ensuring nature remains a constant companion throughout the home. Each floor centers around its own courtyard, creating hearts for shared experiences while maintaining privacy in more intimate areas. The design deliberately breaks away from rigid boundaries, instead orchestrating a careful balance between built and unbuilt spaces that fosters both community and seclusion within the family.
Double-height volumes punctuate the interior, creating dramatic vertical connections and opportunities for natural light to penetrate deep into the plan. The staircase unfolds in layers, while corridors open unexpectedly to courts that connect to quieter zones. This interplay generates a journey through the house that reveals carefully framed views and moments of pause. The borrowed landscape becomes an ever-present companion, creating a rhythm of glimpses and stillness that changes throughout the day. Light and shadow animate the textured surfaces, unveiling the architecture's character in continuous transformation.
The material palette establishes a dialogue between raw, tactile surfaces and lush greenery. Rough limestone and gabion cylinders create a meditative threshold at the entrance, blurring boundaries between inside and out. The architects incorporated the client's existing collection of potted plants and foliage into the new landscape, ensuring continuity from their previous home. Cascading greens soften the rugged textures while remaining deeply rooted in the family's daily life. This integration of personal botanical elements transforms standard landscaping into a meaningful extension of the home's narrative.
The uppermost terrace, complete with swimming pool and entertainment zones, functions more as a continuation of the home's rhythmic composition than as an ending. This elevated retreat blends leisure with openness, offering panoramic views of the surrounding tree canopy. Throughout Villa 1374, landscape serves as a quiet presence rather than mere decoration, ensuring the architecture remains in gentle conversation with its surroundings. The project exemplifies how contemporary Indian residential design can honor both modernist principles and local environmental context. Its success lies in creating spaces that feel both informal and intimate, grounded in nature while reaching toward architectural sophistication.
