# One Apartment, Three Design Languages: A Family Residence

> Our design for two homes on one floor — a parents' home and a grandparents' home for the same family — presented three times over in three design languages: soft modern, contemporary Indian and light classical. The layout never changes between them, which is the point: it separates the decision about how a home looks from the decision about how it works.

## The brief

Two homes on one floor for one family: a **parents' home** and a **grandparents' home**,
each complete in itself, sharing an arrival and a floor plate with a 12 ft finished
ceiling.

The parents' home takes three bedrooms — a principal suite with its own dressing room, a
shared children's bedroom with an adjoining study and play room, and a guest bedroom —
plus a main lounge, a secondary lounge, a billiards lounge, a serving and breakfast area
and the main kitchen. The grandparents' home takes two bedrooms, its own lounge and
dining, its own kitchen, a mandir and an aligned jhoola seating group.

The design was then presented **three times over**, in three design languages.

## Why three languages, on one layout

Clients cannot choose a style from a mood board. They can choose between three versions of
their own lounge.

So the layout is held completely still — same sofa position, same dining table, same
jhoola, same window line — and only the **materials, lighting, art and timber tone**
change. That separates two decisions that usually get tangled: how a home works, and how
it looks.

| | Soft modern | Contemporary Indian | Light classical |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Walls | Lime plaster, flat | Plaster with a painted mural wall | Panelling and cornice |
| Timber | Pale oak | Deeper, warmer timber | Pale, painted or limed |
| Textiles | Neutral, linen-like | Indigo and pattern | Muted, tailored |
| Light | Linear bronze pendant | Warm sources, lower level | Chandelier and shaded lamps |
| Art | One abstract canvas | Landscape and mural | Framed landscapes, hung in pairs |

Look at the three lounges below and you can see the room is identical. That is what makes
the comparison worth something: nobody is being shown three different plans and asked to
pick a feeling.

## The rooms that were decided before the style was

**The mandir.** A semi-open niche of about 2.07 by 0.90 m in the grandparents' lounge,
with its own lighting and a stone counter, positioned so the seating group naturally faces
it. Planned in, it is part of the room. Added after the furniture is placed, it reads as an
afterthought — because it is one.

**The jhoola.** It sits *inside* the seating group rather than against a wall, which makes
it a structural decision, not a furniture one: the ceiling fixing, the swing travel and the
clearance to the coffee table all have to be agreed before the slab is finished. Both the
manufacturer's travel and the structural fixing remain to be verified.

**Two kitchens.** Each home cooks for itself. The grandparents' kitchen is long and narrow
at roughly 6.95 by 1.94 m; the parents' main kitchen is about 5.22 by 2.33 m. Sharing one
kitchen between two households is the single decision most likely to be regretted.

**The service edge.** Existing staff and service spaces are retained, and Section B–B is
cut through them deliberately — because in a home of this size the service route is what
keeps the rest of it calm.

## Drawn as plan, axonometric and section

The three languages sit on top of one set of drawings: a **furnished plan** with every room
labelled, an **axonometric** of the whole floor, and a **section** through the private
suite confirming the 12 ft (3,657.6 mm) finished ceiling.

The section is the useful one. Ceiling height decides whether cornice reads as generous or
oppressive, whether a chandelier can hang at all, and how high the joinery can run — so it
is drawn before the style is chosen, not after.

Related: [laminate and veneer](/materials/laminate-and-veneer) ·
[natural stone cladding](/materials/natural-stone-cladding) ·
[luxury and hospitality interiors](/services/interior-fit-out/luxury-and-hospitality-interiors)

## About these visuals

**The room views on this page are AI design interpretations** of the studio's own guide
drawings — the plan, the axonometric and the section are native studies. We say so because
the deck says so, and because a client should know which images are a rendering of a
decision and which are an illustration of a direction. The furniture, stone, lighting and
sanitary selections still require specification and coordination.

## What to settle before construction drawings

- **Which language**, and whether it applies to both homes or only one.
- **Site dimensions verified**, since the layout is derived from a source plan.
- **The rear connection between the two homes** — open, door-closed, or sealed.
- **Kitchen utility enclosures** for both kitchens.
- **Jhoola fixing and travel**, agreed with the structural engineer.
- **Detailed MEP**, especially in the private suite where the section is tightest.

## Taking it to site

We design and build residences under one contract — joinery, stone, services and finishes:
[luxury and hospitality interiors](/services/interior-fit-out/luxury-and-hospitality-interiors) ·
[turnkey fit-out](/services/interior-fit-out/turnkey-office-fit-out) ·
[fit-out MEP coordination](/services/interior-fit-out/fit-out-mep-coordination) ·
[residential developments](/industries/residential-developments)

**Planning a home, or two homes on one floor?** Send the floor plan and the number of
households. [Talk to the design team](/contact).

## Frequently asked questions

### Why present the same apartment in three design languages?

Because clients cannot choose a style from a mood board, but they can choose between three versions of their own lounge. Holding the layout fixed and changing only the materials, lighting, art and furniture makes the comparison honest — you are judging the look, not being shown three different plans and asked to like one.

### What actually changes between the three languages?

Wall treatment, lighting, upholstery, art and the timber tone. What does not change is the plan: the same sofa position, the same dining table, the same jhoola, the same window line. In this design the soft modern version uses lime plaster, pale oak and bronze; the contemporary Indian version adds indigo textiles, a painted mural and warmer timber; the light classical version adds cornice, panelling, chandeliers and shaded lamps.

### How do you plan two family homes on one floor?

Give each home everything it needs to run independently — its own kitchen, its own lounge, its own bedrooms and bathrooms — and share only what genuinely benefits from being shared, which here is the arrival and the common areas. The grandparents' home takes the mandir and a quieter lounge-and-dining; the parents' home takes the children's rooms, a billiards lounge and a second sitting room.

### Where does the mandir go in an apartment?

In the plan, not in a leftover corner. Here it is a semi-open niche of about 2.07 by 0.90 m in the grandparents' lounge, with its own lighting and a stone counter, aligned so the seating group faces it naturally. A mandir added after the furniture is placed always reads as an afterthought, because it is one.

### What is a jhoola and how is it planned?

A swing seat, and it has to be planned with the structure rather than hung later. In this design it sits inside the seating group instead of against a wall, which means the ceiling fixing, the swing travel and the clearance to the coffee table all have to be agreed before the slab is finished. Manufacturer travel and structural fixing remain to be verified.

### Can you design and build a residence like this?

Yes. Send the floor plan and tell us how many households will live on it. We will plan it, present the material direction more than one way, and build it — joinery, services and finishes under one contract.

---

Source: https://hagerstone.com/our-designs/apartment-interior-design-three-design-languages