MuseLAB outlines a 'House of Curiosities' in Kolhapur, India

In most contemporary residences, the paucity of available space often restricts ornamentation and the deliverance of experiences indoors. Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms are either sundered cleanly to ensure privacy or are built sans delimitations to warrant the flexible usage of all areas. In both these cases, attempts are made by designers and architects to wedge in as many facilities as possible in the small space available. However, how would this attempt at designing indoor spaces change if provided with an almost limitless span? For Mumbai-based architecture and design firm MuseLAB, an opportunity thusly served as the ground for myriad artistic expressions that move past the fulfillment of utility and need, and facilitate the process of unique experiential encounters at every nook and corner of the house. Aptly called the House of Curiosities, the residential design in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, hosts an array of objects and sculptures, fountains and fenestrations, scintillating screens and fettered bridges, luminous atriums, and ebullient corners, and much more.

Located in a quaint residential neighbourhood in Kolhapur, House of Curiosities is straddled between two apartment buildings. The neighbouring areas, on the other hand, hold bungalows, villas and a few apartments. A hospital stands across the residence, as well. Since the outdoor view from the house is ordinary and usual, Huzefa Rangwala and Jasem Pirani, the founders of MuseLAB, focused on building an introverted space within the residence, with ample scope for peeking inwards at the myriad and ever-changing perspectives from different angles. Speaking about this approach, Rangwala shares, “It sometimes can become very overwhelming in terms of how big the space is, which is why we created so many moments, so many details that one would not tend to be bored or would not feel lost in the volume of the home. I think that is why this home is so rich in its details, its visuals, its collaborations, in its textures, palettes, materials, and so on.”

The private residence, spread across an area of 15,000 square feet, lies on flat land. It is situated within a rectangular plot and is built keeping in mind the vastu required for the location and structure. MuseLAB was invited by Mr. Bauskar, the client, after the structure was built, in order to complete the residential architecture with interior design. The house is designed for Mr. Bauskar, his wife, two young sons and his father. While Mr. Bauskar runs various businesses, his wife is a homemaker, his elder son a pilot, and his younger son a student. His father, an elderly man in his 70s, has retired and now lives with Mr. Bauskar. The family hails from Kankavli, which is around 100 kilometres west of Kolhapur.

On asking what the brief shared by Mr. Bauskar mentioned, Huzefa Rangwala tells STIR, “His brief to us was pretty straightforward—it had to wow his visitors with its luxury quotient and at the same time, it had to feel like a home peppered with opportunities where the family can make new memories.” The brief, hence, did not come with any specifications for aesthetics, colour palette or mood board in mind. The intention was simple—create dramatic residential interiors.

The architects, thus, approached the structure as a shell and decided to treat its interiors like a museum. In the role of interior designers, Jasem Pirani and Huzefa Rangwala strived to ensure that every step taken within the residential building would be greeted with the view of a new object, or a peek into another interesting space. “It was clear that nothing had to be mundane. And everything that would have been otherwise taken for granted (like a staircase or a corridor or an elevator wall) must be celebrated through bold and specific design interventions. Large homes can also be overwhelming to live in, especially when one is by themselves. Hence, the museum-like approach to designing the home ensures interaction with these elements, even when one is by themselves at home," Rangwala asserts. Just like the different galleries within a museum are themed and styled differently, House of Curiosities, too, is designed to reflect a rich array of colours, patterns and textures that are uniquely put together—in the form of wood, metal and fabric used as well as rugs, art, accessories and other objects displayed—in each room, in lieu with its function.

 The house spans three floors. The ground floor comprises the entrance foyer, a large living space almost 30 feet high, the dining area and kitchen, the master bedroom with a walk-in closet and bathroom, the powder room, Mr. Bauskar’s father’s room, and an atrium that holds a water body. Both, a staircase and an elevator lead up to the upper floors of the residence. “From the entrance door, you get a peek into the foyer, but as you move into the foyer, that's actually the vantage point that gives you a peek into the voluminous living room. As one enters the house, you also get a sense of the staircase and a glimpse of the water court. When in the living room, the water court is still visible. Also, the living room and staircase are visible from the dining area,” Rangwala shares, enunciating, hence, the visual connectivity within the house. 

The first floor comprises the sons’ rooms, a guest room, an entertainment space for family and a home office. A bridge bordered by screens connects the foyer in front of the sons’ rooms to a large floor landing on the other side. While one of the son’s rooms is coloured in teal, aqua and blue; the other son’s bedroom is saturated in tones of terracotta, salmon and plum. “What happens is that when you are standing around the water court on the ground floor and you look up, you get to see the bridge and the ruby screen that kind of connects the north and the south side of the home, across this is the central courtyard,” the Indian architect explains.

On the second floor, the architects designed a hideout area, the terrace, the jacuzzi space, and the escape room, all connected to each other. Imitating the bridge on the first floor, a floating crossing leads up to a foyer, which houses the home theater, spa salon and gym area. “Everything is so vast and so open, which is why we created jharokhas on the second floor. One can actually sit out there and look down into these volumes, just like how jharokhas were meant to look down the streets. I think there are a lot of opportunities to connect with people across the home, which makes it very interesting as well.” While the escape room carries the hues of yellow, mustard and ochre, the jacuzzi deck is coloured in shades of terracotta. MuseLAB initially intended to designate the escape room for storage purposes. However, they later found another space along the spiral staircase that fit better as a store room, and decided to turn this into an escape room, complete with “Jaisalmer and the yellow smeg followed by yellow laminates and wall paints, yellow fabrics, a yellow roly poly chair by driade, a yellow wall light by Harshita, some jab fabrics in yellow tonalities and a yellow spiral staircase too! The room is a culmination to the circulation in the home and is that little dollop of surprise that one discovers while exploring the home.”

Adhering to the brief shared by the client, MuseLAB designed excellent services within the household. However, in order to fill its spaces with objects that carry some meaning, the designers decided against using a barrage of imported furniture pieces and began the search, instead, for collaborators who could enliven each room. “Hence, we began the exercise of some soul searching within the home where we started identifying corners and pockets and elements and surfaces as opportunities to create individualistic pieces by Indian designers,” MuseLAB’s co-founder shares. Some of these collaborators include architect and designer Rooshad Shroff; contemporary Indian artist Sameer Tawde; luxury lighting brand Hive Home; architect, illustrator and muralist Priyanka Thaker’s practice House of Berserk; premium handmade rug brand Fazo Project; furniture studio Harshita Jhamtani Designs; Hyderabad-based furniture company Wicker Story; P3 Architectural Solutions; and MuseMART, the furniture design wing of MuseLAB.

Shivangi Shah of Hive Home designed a brass and white glass light installation for the foyer that resembles the white dogwood tree and portrays “a canopy of a tree to give the experience of a sheltered walk before one enters the living room.” Priyanka Thaker of House of Berserk, on the other hand, created a CNC-milled metal screen called Cosmic Disco, for the purpose of serving as a partition between the dining space and the living area, as well as guiding the route from the foyer to the staircase.

Harshita Jhamtani Designs created a 28 feet totemic lamp made out of ceramic for the 30 feet high living room, and Wicker Story’s Priyanka Narula designed an upside-down floret for the hideout room on the second floor. Fazo Project customised 18 rugs for this project. Additionally, they also designed the piece de resistance in the living room, which is a rug that cascades from the wall behind the armchairs onto the Statuario stone floor, and splits into two. Fatima Warsi of FAZO shares, “For the design to come alive, we decided early on to use intense textures. We incorporated multiple weaving techniques, infused a variety of yarns (including pure silks, mohair, cotton, linen and premium wool) and applied several dyeing techniques. Exacting standards were maintained to balance the distribution of colour and elements throughout its large area to keep visual appeal paramount. Strenuous artisanal effort at meticulous hand-carving and embroidery went in over the course of weeks. We had to manually match and align the individual segments so the level of precision was rigorous.”

MuseLAB collaborated with Rooshad Shroff to create flower-pressed panels along the entire running length of the staircase handrail and welcomed Sameer Tawde to design the Bird Song sculpture, made out of metal, wood, copper, brass and aluminium, for the stairwell. Shroff shares, “Bird Song is a sculpture that tries to capture the old world charm of a gramophone as well as the free spirit of an open sky. When thinking of the idea, there were a bunch of options in my head. And I always wanted birds to be there somehow, so when I heard the actual bird song during a trip to Bengaluru while passing a garden, it remained with me and later on gramophone got associated with it, as if I wanted that sound recorded. Myna or Bharadwaj bird is a common bird yet very melodious, I have been a fan of its simplicity so there was no guessing when I chose the bird.”

MuseLAB also worked with P3 Architectural Solutions to enliven the bridges on the first and second floors. P3 Architectural Solutions created a screen using two convex glasses in four shades of red. Some of these glasses rotate and create a dynamic and interactive experience for those walking past them. A few shape-shifting toys, called MuseTRIBE, made by MuseMART in collaboration with Channapatana artisans, have been installed on the ceiling of the elevator lobby on the first floor. The toys jingle and chime on breezy days. 

Sharing one of their ideas for the house, Huzefa Rangwala mentions, “When we proposed the flower-pressed panels by Rooshad Shroff for the staircase handrail, the idea was to create an experience of walking through the meadows while traversing the steps. Little did we know that Mrs. Baurskar loves flowers and has her own journal of pressed flowers that she has collected over a period of time from all of her travels.”

The entire project—from designing to handover—was completed by MuseLAB in a span of 15 months. “Given the strict timelines, we did bypass our otherwise process-driven approach to design and allowed for both, the ideas and objects to organically unfold through the course of the built,” the architects mention. The initial meetings with the client were held over video calls, where the designers presented their ideas through a collage of elements, objects, textiles and more. Sharing further insight regarding the process, MuseLAB shares, “Rather than presenting views of the spaces, we designed and created 3D diagrams of the individual elements. Once the overall mood was established, we then connected each of the collaborators with the client to set up a clear brief to commission the art or the object. This way, the artists and designers clearly understood our client, both in terms of their background and their mindset.”

Project Details

Name: House of Curiosities
Location: Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
Area: 15,000 square feet
Year of completion: 2023
Interior designer: MuseLAB