Exploring a residential project by 4th Axis Design Studio

While designing a house, a space that will be inhabited and lived in every day, it is fundamental to understand the personality and character of residents. That was the starting point for the 4th Axis Design Studio when approaching this residential project in Nanded, Maharashtra.

The project aimed for a sophisticated yet elegant design, with each space fulfilling the family’s desire for a comfortable modern lifestyle. The goal was to maintain a consistent aesthetic and style across all spaces while keeping the wishes and needs of each family member at the forefront of the project narrative.

Designed with climate and surroundings in mind

The studio approached Ishatvam by focusing on the surroundings of the building and the climate of the area. Which allowed for prioritizing responsiveness and creating hybrid, al fresco areas that blend the outdoors within traditional indoor spaces.

Harnessing natural light and nature

The first floor unfolds into a harmonious blend of spaces, featuring a courtyard and an inviting dining area, including a well-appointed kitchen: these areas are designed to encourage different kinds of social interactions and entertaining.

The floor includes two bedrooms and an elevated spacious living area designed to create a luxurious appearance.

Each space offers a unique view of the courtyard, which features Nexion’s Runa Nero surfaces and is arranged on different levels to enhance the interplay of light and vegetation.

This approach fosters connectivity among the areas and creates a dynamicity that inspires creativity and comfort.

A key challenge in this design was to harness the abundant natural light and ventilation from the east-facing courtyard wall. Incorporated terracotta bricks design a dynamic interplay of shades that play across the indoor spaces in the morning light.

The primary bedroom on the second floor has a private courtyard facing south-west.

A library/family area and a home theater are located on the opposite side of the floor, which also features an elegant terrace covered in Runa Grigio Scuro slabs, overlooking the courtyard.

Central to this architectural narrative is the metal staircase, which connects the first and second floors but also serves as a focal point, visible from every room in the house.

Project credits

Designed by 4th Axis Design Studio
Lead Architects – Ar. Sagar Mundada & Ar. Amit kasliwal
Design Team – Ar. Shriya Sonawane, Prashant Rapanwad, Ar. Zeeshan Khan, Ar. Srushti Mahajan, Ar. Sneha Roda, Sunil Waghmare
Structural Engineer – Abhay Lokmanwar

Photo Credits

Hemant A Patil

In this video, we’ll take a look at the latest project from renowned architect Niraj Shah, founder of IDO Design Interior Studio. The project is the first Design Build Operate (DBO) for the young cosmetics brand, Renee Cosmetics. The challenge for Niraj and his team was to create a space that would differentiate Renee Cosmetics from other players in the market.
To do this, they chose to go with a black color scheme and opted for matte flooring to balance the high contrast from the glass surfaces. The space is divided into two parts, with a central black area and a light grey circulation area. By using a different pattern on the tiles in each area, the designers were able to give each space its own unique character.
The end result is a space that is both visually striking and functional, and one that will help to establish Renee Cosmetics as a standout brand in the industry.
So, let’s take a closer look at the design and learn more about how Niraj and his team brought this project to life.

The Gujarat Villa, surprisingly not straight out of an African Safari

Straight out of an African Safari? Not quite.

Even though you may have thought so, while looking at its orange walls, black furniture and the occasional deer, this villa by ACE Associates actually finds itself in Gujarat, on the western coasts of India, yet surely recalls the glorious African savannahs.

More precisely, this verdant villa enclave of Narayan Nandan is located in the administrative centre of Anand, where people come up for air to forget noise and traffic and immaculate landscapes cover for hot, grassy plains. So much for the sunrise shades, Stygian furniture and shadowy deer emblazoned across the walls.

How the Terraelino Collection inspired the architects who designed this Gujarat Villa

As the co-founders and architects of ACE Associates Ashish and Nikhil Patel said in a VOGUE interview:

the inspiration for the house came from Nexion’s recently launched collection of tiles, Terrælino, that they described as “varied, vibrant and warm”, that “inadvertently set the stage for the dominant palette” and matched perfectly the idea of a home that straddled the refined and the rustic.

A match made in heaven

When entering the living room, one can’t help but notice how the walls wear a tangerine mottle, charcoal coffers define the ceiling and the floor channels a pomegranate sheen. The room is in fact underpinned by our orange Terrælino tiles, that go perfectly with the tangerine-mottled walls and charcoal furniture, and inevitably seem to position the interior in a savannah setting.

“The spaces on the ground floor are united by Melograno tiles, marble wall finishes and all-black furniture,” pointed out the architects on this matter. “We mixed up the accents, so there was little scope for monotony.”

Nexion: Italian style that inspires

Our pledge lies in constantly wanting to deliver something unique, excellent in terms of technical and aesthetic quality, but not only that. Nexion will always strive to strike a conversation with the architect community and empower them through a distinct emphasis on building relationships and collaboration. This Gujarat Villa is proof that Nexion tiles can indeed turn designers’ dreams into reality.

Get inspired by our Terrælino collection and build your own design dream.

Vadilal is a national brand.

Niraj Shah, Founder Partner at IDO Design, shared his vision on the development of the design of Vadilal new ice-cream experience parlor. Being Vadilal a national brand, creating this dessert café was a great opportunity for him to experiment with materials and colors, in order to match the new brand statement, “now, forever”, with the interior design.

As he points out, he quickly realized that blue was the perfect contrast to what the brand color itself was, both for the amount of coolness it offered and the fact it connected to the product itself. Nexion’s Terrælino’s Ginepro blue, inspired by juniper berry, would create the right vibrancy for the place, as far as giving it the tone down value within the whole space, and yet let it be bright and happy.
Selecting the Terraelino range of tone-on-tone grounds made it possible to obtain a feeling of visual continuity with a very natural impact, eliminating the perception of interruption’s phenomena which can often be one of the great limits of the use of ceramic materials in architecture.

One of the most important concerns Niraj Shah had was, in fact, to have a seamless floor. That is why he first experimented with a few other materials and evaluated the possibility to do a micro topping or to use China mosaic within the space. He rapidly understood though, that those weren’t the solutions he was looking for, due to practicality reasons: the module would have been repeated in other cities or outlets and there would have been issues in terms of availability, labor and time, because time is always short when you replicate. With Nexion’s Terrælino, on the contrary, large formats amplify that feeling of continuity, as if the architectural space was an extension of the natural environment it overlooks, having the answer he was really searching for.

In Nexion’s Terrælino Ginepro, he found a wonderful blue that fitted in his scheme of themes beautifully well, resulting in a nice base color floor, without any patterns, which have become quite the fad, and of the perfect size.

Nexion’s primary goal is to help visionary designers and architects to realize great ideas with a relentless focus on delivering a superlative service experience.
In order to achieve our vision, we develop new designs and surfaces by adopting new technologies that allow us to be ahead of time and help the design community and professionals to complete their projects.
Niraj Shah, Founder Partner at IDO Design, believes that innovation and creativity based on common sense and basic human needs bring about good design. In order words, we never stop learning, as knowledge and inspiration come from all walks of life, every single moment. “Share what you know” has been his guiding thought.
When creating a beautiful café, Roastea, in terms of great aesthetic, design and youthful experience, he decided to use the Terrælino Menta color, inspired by Mint Leaf, for the floor. The Roastea logo has in fact two colors, green and red, which offered him an opportunity to pick up one of the colors out of the brand book itself. As Niraj Shah points out, using green color for the floor allowed to encase a small space, creating a bright and happy feel with whites in it and the wood grain in the counter, making the whole setting very neutral. Combining the Terrælino Menta color with red tables and seats results in a very comforting, warm and welcoming location, without being too bright, unconventional or difficult to digest and working extremely well.
Our recently launched Terrælino collection was born from the inspiration to create a symbiosis between earth and linen, a primitive element and a refined fabric, a material devised to inspire professionals and welcome any application.

A major part of Nexion’s work is partnering with the architectural community in order to deliver construction projects, using our products and supporting teams with our custom service and technical know-how.

Nexion products are developed from the best designer in Italy and manufactured in India with quality and standards at par with the best Italian leaders.

At the end of 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand, we completed one luxury building project D8 with our Calacatta Marble in size 120x240cm.

The D8 project provides a complete living experience consisting in a 6-story semi-detached house full of luxury spaces and precious details. Wide range of in-house facilities, such as a private lift, infinity pool and a living area of over 700 square meters with 6 private parking spaces, are only few of the features of this project.

Our Calacatta Lappato matt is the perfect solution for ventilated facade being UV, stain and scratch resistant combined with Terramilano system which offers the highest wind load resistance (over 6200 Pa with ceramic cladding panels of 9 mm), fire resistance and safe in use in high seismic areas.