Personal pukka
Simran Lal laughs as she describes one of the most common predicaments faced by customers looking for tableware at Good Earth, India’s largest high-end homeware retailer. “I can’t tell you the number of times people rush in saying, ‘I’m having 35 people over for dinner tomorrow, and I desperately need new tableware,’” says the retailer’s chief executive officer. “That’s when we go crazy finding enough stock.”
The anecdote reveals three aspects of the evolving Indian market for high-end home interiors. First, it highlights growing interest in home decor among a new generation of affluent Indians. It also sheds light on one of the key motivations of this increased willingness to spend – a uniquely sub-continental interest in entertaining. Last, it illustrates one of the prevailing design philosophies – of “relaxed luxury”.
Population growth of high net worth individuals in India is among the highest in the world. According to the 2010 World Wealth Report by consulting firm Capgemini and investment bank Merrill Lynch, India’s wealthy population (defined as persons with assets of $1m or more, excluding primary residence, collectables and consumables) grew 50 per cent between 2008 and 2009, more than double the growth rate in the UK and thrice that of the US.
Residential developers are capitalising by building more high-end properties, says Shveta Jain, director of residential services for Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate brokerage firm. Developers across the country have begun offering feature-laden homes, usually in gated communities of 150-300 flats.
Flats can measure anywhere from 2,800 to 6,000 sq ft and typically have four or five bedrooms. An attached clubhouse, with swimming pool, gym, spa, tennis or squash courts and even the occasional putting green, are standard features of such schemes.
Business owners and financial services professionals form the majority of buyers seeking such “quality lifestyles”, says Jain. Customisation of interior spaces is the norm. For a Rs100m (about £1.7m) apartment, it is customary to spend Rs6m (£150,000) on furniture and fixtures.
A better standard of living is not, however, the only motivator for this increased spend on interior design. Unlike in the western world, rich urban Indians often combine business and pleasure at home. “We are a highly social culture, always on our mobile phones, going out two or three times a week, not just on the weekends,” says Lal.
“Indians like to entertain at home, more than any other culture I’ve seen. Hosts regularly hold gatherings with two or three generations of people,” adds Maithili Parekh, director of business development at Sotheby’s in India. Greater participation of women in the workforce, particularly in family businesses, has also helped transform the home into a venue for corporate entertaining, as much as for socialising. Many upmarket Indian homes have a living area that can entertain up to 50 people at a time. Naushir De Vitre, director of architecture and design practice Talati & Panthaky Associated, notes that a dedicated “party room” with a bar, patio, pantry and a separate service entry is a standard requirement.
The 65-year-old practice is among the country’s most reputed, handling nearly 300 residential commissions annually. “Even in city apartments, where the carpet area is less than that of a bungalow, owners are willing to sacrifice a bedroom in order to create a larger party room. This could include an area for a DJ, and even a Japanese teppanyaki counter,” he says.
The home is an expression of individual taste and style to society at large, as much as a status symbol among peers. One of the most discernible shifts in the expression of this new identity is the disconnect with historical design influences. For decades, interior design was inspired by colonial or Mughal grandeur. But two decades of economic growth and globalisation, and a rise in nuclear living have enabled a new generation of Indians to think of their homes as “much more personal experiments”, says Soumitro Ghosh, co-founder of Mathew & Ghosh, a leading Bangalore-based architectural practice. “Earlier generations felt pressure to show off their homes, using traditional, expensive finishes. The younger generation of business owners wants to enjoy the homes, and a way of living, and are less bothered about expensive materials.”
Ghosh’s firm designs villas from 10,000-18,000 sq ft in size. Usually, these residences are designed for no more than a couple and two children. Rather than many bedrooms, space is devoted to other activities – a library or study, a home theatre or exercise room.
The 3,900 sq ft duplex Mumbai apartment of Anupa Sahney, a management consultant, demonstrates these principles. Sahney lives with her husband, a private equity financier, their teenage daughter and their dog. She sacrificed square footage to install a steel spiral staircase connecting two floors, creating an open-plan expanse for living, dining and socialising. The resulting 20ft-high space, with long windows and verandah, resembles a weekend home rather than a city apartment.
“I hate being claustrophobic, I don’t like opulent stuff and I want to work with volume rather than artefacts,” she explains. A rustic palette of materials and finishes has been combined with a collection of European furniture and lighting, including Utrecht chairs from Poltrona Frau and a Karim Rashid floor lamp from Artemide.
Lal’s homes serve as ambassadors for the “relaxed luxury” brand. High-quality, contemporary interpretations of traditional Indian textiles and craft establish a casual yet chic aesthetic in both her parental villa in Delhi and her terrace apartment in Mumbai.
This design language is spreading to smaller Indian towns, such as Baroda, Udaipur and Surat, says De Vitre. Yet the market is not without its challenges. Jayshree Ayyar, a Singapore-based mother and homemaker, says she struggled to find a well-finished property to rent in Bangalore as a part-time second home for her husband and herself. “The quality of finishes is still lacking, probably because labourers are unskilled and owners keep changing their minds when doing up their homes,” she says. Her ultimate choice was a 5,000 sq ft villa designed by Mathew & Ghosh with a garden, a pool and a dramatic “solar topee” to control daylight into the house.
Jain of Cushman & Wakefield agrees that developers “need to think out of the box” and construct more user-friendly homes. “Customers are more discerning today,” she says.
留言列表
