Everyone wants a beautiful house. It is thus critical to understand the meaning of beauty! As the cliche goes – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – What is in the eye?? As we understand it today that the eye is an organ that takes in light and casts an inverted projection of the world within itself. It seems to be more like a media rather than an analytical system. One needs knowledge to validate value of things. I guess it is ok to say that we measure things by the information we have. Is ignorance – bliss when it comes to creating our homes? How do we accept the idea of beauty despite the array of visuals that we have accumulated as aspirations?? The hypothesis of this is that the things we call beautiful are from within, which has certain association with us. The places which we have visited or the experiences that we have had. Essentially all that we take in through our senses become the basis of our preferences.
A functional home is the one which makes us happy. Happiness comes from various things – Comfort, Convenience, Function, Pride, Adaptiveness, Multiplicity, Order, Association etc. These are quite a bucket list unless one is a Maha-atma! Hence, the lower the expectations – the simpler it is from point of view of design and costs.
What we see as styles are merely themes if we evaluate them without context. A style is essentially an ‘order’ of relevances drawn from the general climate, cost, material, technology, etc. during creation. If these orders are taken at face-value, then their performance is shallow – which translates to faster redundancy.
The organisation of systems like houses, buildings and cities are a complex task. The composition of objects for comfort, utility and services to appear in – order is a task which needs skill and understanding of planning, designing, sociology, economics, engineering, construction and management.
Today the prevailing system of getting a home renovated is primarily through Carpenters. Woodwork is the most extensive component of the house infrastructure. Beds, Wardrobes, Divans, Tables, Cabinets, Doors and Windows are constructed by Carpenters. In a city like Mumbai, where space comes at a premium – Apartment typology is the most prevalent house type. Rarely does one completely refurbish the house from the shell, unless it is a newly acquired asset. In such a case one will require the entire array of services to renovate the house.
To renovate from scratch, a certain amount of civil work which includes breaking and constructing is done. Be it walls, flooring, repair of plastering, refurbishing Toilets and kitchen – a ‘Kadia’ (Mason) will be required. In course of the Civil work, Electrical and Plumbing work also needs to be coordinated. Also in line one might want to involve a PoP guy, who could ‘straighten’ out undulations in walls or install a ‘false-ceiling’ to conceal conduits and articulate lighting within it. A Painter is a necessity in every project to ‘finish’ walls and woodwork which might need polishing. Metal work for Grills and railings is generally sourced to Fabricators.
The Building industry also provides a plethora of options for Materials. Be it Wood & Alternatives, Laminates, Veneers, Resins and other Synthetic materials for Carpentry. Various options for Flooring and tiling, Platforms for Civil work, Fittings and Fixtures for Sanitary and Plumbing, Wires and Fittings for Electrical works. Various equipment and out sourced items have to be coordinated, be it Window grills, Kitchen trolleys, Air conditioners, special light fittings and electronics need to be acquired beforehand so as to not affect timelines and breakage for rework. Tasteful and complimenting choice of finishings, furnishings and artefacts will further enhance the ambience of the house.
To have a efficient and economically sound renovation project, one needs to design and plan holistically. To save delays and money, time & logistics management is the key. The existing industry consists of contractors and workers, most of them are traditional craftsmen. Their skills are limited to their vocations and they have hardly any understanding of time and budgeting, not to mention their communication skills make it difficult to convey or comprehend what they create.
Hiring a trained professional to design, supervise and manage any size of a renovation project is a new approach. These professionals can easily bridge that gap and get about better credibility to the project.
Their professional charges are nominal and self-paying in context to saving time and costs that one might encounter by designing efficient systems, choosing ideal material, supervise quality of workmanship, better coordination, etc. Institutions training these professionals have grown 10 fold in the last 10 years. Their training spans 3 to 5 years and involves in understanding Art, Design, History, Materials, Structure, Construction, Time management, Quantities & Costing, etc. One can get access to Architects & Interior Designers and Decorators through various aggregator websites like Quikr, Sulekha, Just Dial and personal websites of respective professionals. These professionals easily take up projects size of 3 lakhs onwards with fees as low as 5% of project cost for design and supervision.
Having practiced Interior Design for 20 years and being involved in creating 25 odd homes, I have witnessed people have horrific experiences and go through major financial losses in renovating their homes, with the right professional help I am sure that this will become a thing of the past.
Best of Luck and Godspeed!